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No timeline for procurement of independent meters – Jagdeo
Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo
– Govt. now monitoring from Exxon’s screen
Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana has no fixed timeline to procure independent meters to monitor the production of oil from the country’s lucrative Stabroek Block, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed on Thursday.
Jagdeo was at the time speaking at his weekly press conference held at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown.
The Vice President said too that the government has no independent way of monitoring Exxon’s operations.
Notwithstanding, the Vice President disclosed that despite belief that the Government has no means of monitoring Exxon’s operations, the government through the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) is able to monitor via Exxon’s screen.
“Right now there is an impression that we don’t get any data, we don’t do any monitoring. So you do have people from the Bureau of Standards on board the vessel and also from GRA. They look at the meters, the calibration of the meters all of these things to look at the flow of the oil and the produced water.”
The data received from Exxon’s meters currently monitoring the different aspects of offshore production is updated in a 10 minute cycle, the VP told reporters.
The government is also able to monitor drilling data via Exxon’s screens.
Jagdeo reiterated that the three governmental agencies “have access to that dashboard…so we can also track what’s going on offshore but we plan to do our own thing independently later.”
“I doubt it is going to change much from what we see but we [Government] will have the comfort,” Jagdeo told reporters.
Meanwhile, the VP explained that when he travelled to Ghana, he was invited to see how that country monitors its the gas extraction. He said this was not done from a huge building.
“A modest building. Smaller than up here [Freedom House], smaller than this and you have about 10 screens and individuals are there, and that’s all they do. It does not have to be a massive operation and we can get it done,” he said as he described the Ghanaian monitoring operation.
At a previous press conference the VP said that he is confident that Guyana will be able to independently and extensively monitor ExxonMobil’s production real time in a few years, when the government makes all the necessary improvements.
“We now use some other mechanisms that are useful in the absence of that robust kind of on-site presence in a comprehensive way but those need to be enhanced. So I have no doubt that over the next few years we will substantively increase our capacity to do that to monitor production,” he said.
He continued: “So I explained in the beginning that we have to work at putting the framework in place to regulate this sector, which we have practically done through the implementation of the Petroleum Activities Bill, reform of the NRF, the Local Content Law, the new regulations concerning environmental permits, etc., the flaring, the tax on flaring, a whole range of those issues we have worked on,” Jagdeo said.
The VP said too that his government is now placing heavy focus on monitoring, even though Exxon will have a unit at its headquarters that will facilitate real time monitoring of what is going on offshore. He assured that though the government will have a presence at Exxon’s unit, it will create its own monitoring department.
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