ExxonMobil’s oil production operations offshore Guyana could achieve up to 708,000 barrels per day (b/d) without breaching limits used to assess their environmental impacts.
The limits are captured in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) which formed part of the review processes for the Liza 1, Liza 2 and Payara projects.
Opposition Parliamentarian David Patterson recently said that by exceeding the initial target rates of the three producing projects, Exxon may be compromising safety. However, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, said this is not the case, as the EIAs tested the impacts of the projects, using specified peaks that are higher than the initial rates.
This means that if production at these projects increases beyond their initial target rates, as long as they are within the range of the EIA basis, their impacts have already been considered by environmental regulators prior to project approval.
This leaves room for Exxon to pursue optimization. Bharrat said, according to a Ministry statement, that optimization measures are closely monitored by regulatory agencies to ensure the stability of reservoir and facility performance.
EPA affirmed that increasing oil production is safe – Guyana VP
Thus far, ExxonMobil met its initial target rate for each of the three projects, then sought to optimize production. This has resulted in average production in the first half of 2024 of 623,000 b/d, which is 63,000 b/d higher than the collective initial target of 560,000 b/d.
Exxon most recently optimized production at the Payara project, which demonstrated average production of 248,000 b/d in the last week of June. Higher production is also expected for the Liza 2 project. Exxon has indicated it will pursue optimization work during a third quarter shutdown, to hook up the Gas-to-Energy pipeline.
Exxon is the operator of the Stabroek Block with a 45% stake, supported by Hess (30%) and CNOOC (25%).
