The Government of Guyana is in the process of reviewing applications made by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) to ramp up production at their Liza Phase 2 and Payara Developments in the Stabroek Block.
At his ministry’s press conference on Tuesday Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat underscored the government’s cautious approach in assessing these requests to ensure safety and environmental standards are maintained.
“In this case we have nothing against it as I mentioned but it is just safety concerns to our equipment out there, I say our because it’s our too as well as the environment and ensuring that nothing happens that we don’t want,” the minister stated.
If approved production will increase on the Liza Unity and Prosperity Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSOs) vessels.
In relation to the Prosperity FPSO’s production optimization, Bharrat stated, “On the prosperity optimization, the minimum capacity I think for that vessel is 220-230,000 [barrels per day] so the application is to ramp up to 250,0000 [bpd] to move up to 250 that is the application they made for prosperity.”
Regarding FPSO Unity, Bharrat noted, “No decision on that as yet. We are waiting on a report from the consultant that we have, and then we will have to do it in consultation with EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) as well too.”
Last October, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited’s (EMGL) President, Alistair Routledge, disclosed the company’s intention to increase the production capacity of the Unity FPSO above its authorized limit of 252,000 bpd.
Routledge had disclosed that the current authorized production capacity for the three FPSOs in the Stabroek Block stands at 665,000 bpd. He had stated that ExxonMobil’s ultimate goal includes methodical capacity increases through debottlenecking to optimize their production output.
Routledge had stated that any increase would be subject to rigorous analysis, risk assessments, and consultations with the EPA and the Ministry of Natural Resources.
