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Govt. reviewing Exxon’s application to increase oil production at 2nd and 3rd projects – Minister Bharrat
Kaieteur News- The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is currently reviewing an application made by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), the operator of the Stabroek Block, to further increase the daily rate of oil production at its second and third projects – Liza Two and Payara.
This was revealed by subject Minister, Vickram Bharrat during his end-of-year press conference, hosted at the Guyana Forestry Commission’s Multicomplex Building, Kingston, Georgetown.
Optimization in the oil and gas sector refers to a process geared at enhancing oil recovery. The company would assess the performance of the facilities for existing limitations of the installed equipment to determine how those could be improved.
Minister Bharrat was joined on Tuesday by several senior officers at the head table, including Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines (GGMC), Newell Dennison, Director of the Local Content Secretariat, Dr. Martin Pertab, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Joslyn McKenzie and head of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), Edward Goberdhan.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat during his end of year press conference (Govt. reviewing Exxon’s application)
During his three-hour long media conference, Minister Bharrat noted that a request was received from Exxon to optimize production at the Liza Unity and Prosperity Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs). The Liza Unity operates the Liza Two project while Prosperity produces oil from the Payara project.
According to the Minister, government has hired an independent consultant to assist in reviewing the application. Additionally, he noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also fully engaged in the process, since the no-objection would be tied to the environmental permit issued by the agency.
He explained, “On our side to give final approval, we have contracted a third-party international consultant to look at this matter. As soon as they would have concluded their report, we would be in a better position to either say no or yes to the optimization.”
The Minister did not say how much the company is looking to increase production by. According to data on the Ministry’s website, Exxon is producing approximately 660,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) at the three projects in operation.
The Liza One project is producing about 160,000 bpd; while Liza Two and Payara are producing about 250,000 bpd each.
Minister Bharrat noted that the Ministry will await the assessment by the EPA and the consultant before making a decision to approve the optimization request.
He said, “The government is not against production. We have said that from day one but it must be done in a safe manner. It must be done in a manner that will not cause any issue with equipment or with regards to the environment.”
Bharrat added that if government is satisfied on those issues, it would then give its final decision. Presently, he said the Ministry is awaiting the technical report from the EPA and the consultant.
Back in May 2024, Exxon indicated its intention to carry out modifications on the Liza Two vessel to accelerate its daily oil production. At that time, Exxon’s Country Manager, Alistair Routledge said that when the FPSO goes offline in the third quarter of the year to facilitate the tie-in works for the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project, the company will take advantage of the downtime to conduct maintenance and further debottlenecking activities.
(Govt. reviewing Exxon’s application to increase oil production at 2nd and 3rd projects – Minister Bharrat)
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