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ExxonMobil to hold 10 days of public meetings on seventh oil project
– Amerindians and other Guyanese express concerns about limited time and lack of information
Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil, which has previously been accused of outrageous outreach to the public, will begin another round of consultations next week on its seventh proposed deepwater project, Hammerhead.
In a notice Kaieteur News‘The operator of the oil-rich Stabroek block on Thursday revealed that a public scoping meeting was aimed at providing information about the project to the public.
On July 22, ExxonMobil will commence its public engagement with Region Three residents at the Leonora Technical College, West Coast Demerara, at 10am.
ExxonMobil increased the number of meetings in Region 4 after criticism of its last round of public scoping meetings.
Three meetings are scheduled to be held in the most populous areas of the country, one at Umana Yana in Georgetown, another at the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) in Monrepos, East Coast Demerara, and one at the New Diamond/Grove Primary School, East Coast Demerara.
A total of 10 meetings will be held during the 10-day consultation period.
It is worth noting that the oil company will also cooperate with the hinterland regions and plans to hold two meetings in the first region.
Earlier, Tosho Jaremi Boyar of the village of Wallapoka expressed concern about the way the indigenous community is involved in oil and gas activities. He said there is too much focus on money and benefits from the industry without educating the community about the dangers they may face during offshore activities.
Tosho said he asked about the Shell Beach Reserve during several past public consultations held by ExxonMobil, but his questions were not addressed. Oil spill modeling showed the area could be impacted by an oil spill; however, Tosho said, “It was not on the agenda… A lot of times we sometimes try to understand what the impacts would be and how we would play a role if a spill occurred, but it was not something we were aware of as a village.”
“All we hear is that we are producing a lot, we are going to make a lot of money in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years, and we are growing very fast, we are one of the fastest growing economies in the world,” he said.
Even along the coast, Exxon has been criticized for failing to address key issues in its operations. Several questions raised during a public consultation on its sixth project, Whiptail, in February last year went unanswered.
Importantly, one of the key issues raised at the Umaanayana meeting was insurance for the sixth project. Anthony Jackson, ExxonMobil’s project manager for Guyana, said he could not respond but knew the company would not evacuate if an oil spill occurred.
Meanwhile, Alex Graham, the moderator of one of the meetings, instructed company officials not to respond Kaieteur NewsThe questions concerned how the project would use excess natural gas and its insurance policy against oil spills.
At another meeting in Leonora, this newspaper’s senior reporter was prevented from questioning ExxonMobil officials on a range of issues as she questioned their misleading the public about the impact of the project.
When KN publisher Glenn Lall was refused to answer questions about the cumulative impact of the project, the cynicism about the core issue was again evident at the Mahaicony Training College.
Project 7
The Hammerhead field is expected to add 120,000 to 180,000 barrels per day of oil production capacity. The floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) will be able to store approximately 1.4 million to 2 million barrels of oil. Third-party tankers will unload the oil from the FPSO as planned, making the oil available for export to international markets.
Hammerhead is located in the south-central part of the Stabroek Block, approximately 160 km from Georgetown. Current plans involve drilling via a drillship, using approximately 14 to 30 production and injection wells to produce oil. Production is expected to begin in 2029, subject to necessary regulatory approvals, and to operate for a minimum of 20 years. To date, ExxonMobil has received approval from the Guyana government to proceed with six development projects in the Stabroek Block – Liza Phase I, Liza Phase II, Payara, Yellowtail, Uaru and Whiptail. The first three projects are already producing oil at an estimated rate of 640,000 barrels per day.
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