Even as Guyana prepares for first oil, First Lady, Mrs Sandra Granger, today commissioned the ‘Liza Destiny’, the first in a series of Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels for ExxonMobil Guyana at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore.
The vessel will depart Singapore in July and is expected to arrive in Guyana in September to prepare for the commencement of oil production for the Liza Phase 1 project in the Stabroek Block by the first quarter of 2020.
Mrs Granger was accompanied by Director of the Department of Energy, Dr Mark Bynoe.
In her remarks at the commissioning and naming ceremony, the First Lady said that the vessel has been aptly named as it represents what Guyana can become in the years ahead with the expected revenues and its impacts on the country.
Mrs Granger noted that the vessel in itself will encompass the destinies of the country and all its stakeholders.
President of ExxonMobil’s Upstream Oil and Gas Company, Mr Liam Mallon, said in his remarks that the commissioning and the journey of the vessel is a significant event and marks a new beginning for Guyana.
Mr Mallon noted too the name for the FPSO was deliberately chosen in keeping with what it means not just for the company but Guyana and its population.
Chief Executive Officer of Dutch Company SBM Offshore, which was contracted to construct the ship, Mr Bruno Chabas, said that the ‘Liza Destiny’ was converted from an oil tanker, previously called ‘Tina’. He outlined that engineering and design began in December 2016 and work began in June 2017.
During this time, over 3,000 persons have worked on the vessel. The vessel can produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day and has a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels.
Phase 2 of the Liza development is expected to start-up in mid-2022 and will develop approximately 600 million barrels of oil through the ‘Liza Unity’, the second FPSO in the series. The 13 discoveries on the block to date have established the potential for at least five FPSO vessels producing more than 750,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025.
Following the opening ceremony, the First Lady and the Director of the Department of Energy were taken on a guided tour of the vessel.
