More capacity is being added to Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) so it can effectively monitor the South American nation’s expanding oil sector. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo addressed the topic last week at a press conference.
Jagdeo made it known that the EPA has already made strides while acknowledging the need for improvements.
“…The EPA can detect any sheen in the water so that even small quantities of oil leaks can be detected because of high-resolution satellite imaging and monitoring,” the VP shared.
EPA affirmed that increasing oil production is safe – Guyana VP | OilNOW
Jagdeo said the EPA also has thermal imaging capabilities to detect flaring offshore.
He added that there is also a live feed to monitor discharge water from the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.
“…they can take independent samples of the water to be discharged…they test it to ensure that the water meets the standards that are outlined in the environmental permits…received. Notwithstanding all of that, we need to continue building capacity at the EPA and in government itself…independent capacity to do greater monitoring.”
Early last year, the EPA teamed up with Maxar Technologies to provide environmental monitoring services for both offshore and terrestrial applications. The EPA receives daily satellite imagery intakes across Guyana through the SecureWatch platform, Vessel Alerts through the Crow’s Nest Maritime solution, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) oil spill detection services and change monitoring over specified areas of interest.
