ExxonMobil will be taking the Liza field offline to hook up the pipeline for Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project in the latter half of the year, but this is only expected to last weeks.
“I would say it’s going to be weeks, not months, but exact durations, we’re still working through,” Production Manager, Huzefa Ali told a press briefing on Feb. 6. “That is a major scope of work that needs to be planned well in advance because of the heavy lift equipment and support vessels that need to execute that work.”
ExxonMobil Guyana’s President, Alistair Routledge explained that connecting the pipeline to the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units in the Liza field requires it to be depressurized.
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“…we don’t today have risers for the export of gas from the Liza Phase 1 and Liza Phase 2 FPSO. So, in order to do that…we need these large installation vessels to come in very close to the FPSO. To do that safely, we don’t want to have the high-pressure production operation running,” Routledge added.
Ali noted that the modalities of the downtime are still being hammered out. The shutdown was accounted for in Exxon’s plan for the year and production targets will remain unaffected by the operation.
“…What I’ll say is, we had contemplated the shutdown in our production forecasts. So, we expect to meet our production targets for the year,” he added.
Exxon will take advantage of the downtime to tackle routine maintenance.
Later this year, the GtE integrated facility including a 300-megawatt (MW) power plant is expected to be constructed. The Guyana government contracted a US-based group (CH4-Lindsayca) to build out the facility at Wales, West Bank Demerara, for US$759 million.
The Gas-to-Energy project is poised to be the most transformative for Guyana’s development trajectory. The initiative is expected to allow for a 50% reduction in electricity costs and a new era of industrialization. Guyana and the ExxonMobil-led Stabroek block consortium are executing the project.
