Georgetown, Guyana – (May 3, 2019) Director, Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe, this afternoon, announced that the Liza Phase 2 Field Development Plan (FDP) was approved by the Minister responsible for Petroleum on Monday, April 29, 2019.
The approval, which is for the second phase of development on the Liza field, saw the Department of Energy and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission’s (GGMC) Petroleum Division, together with its external consultant Bayphase, conducting an in-depth review of the Liza Phase 2 FDP which was submitted by Exxon Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL).
Dr. Bynoe explained that the Liza Phase 2 project will utilize a development concept similar to Liza Phase 1 – where it will be utilising subsea wells with oil produced into a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.
“Liza Phase 2 will produce up to 220,000 barrels of oil per day, with a total of six drill centres planned as well as approximately 30 wells, including 15 production, nine water injection and six gas injection wells,” Dr. Bynoe stated.
The Head of the Department of Energy said the Phase 2 start-up is expected in mid-2022 and is projected to develop approximately 600 million barrels of oil.
“The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, named the Liza Unity, will process, store and offload oil to oil tankers for transport to market,” he said, adding that the approval is subject to a number of conditions and confirmatory studies.
Some of the more important conditions relate to the establishment of a Regional Capping Stack or other solution to ensure that a Capping Stack can be deployed within five days of a well control event with loss of containment; improving the targeted availability of the overall production system of the Liza Phase 2 FPSO to between 98 per cent and 99 per cent; identifying potential cost savings synergies between Liza Phase 1 and Lisa Phase 2; the Stabroek partners entering into a Decommissioning Security Agreement; having EEPGL conduct Annual Third-Party Auditing on their Drilling Operations that would be consistent with Good International Oil Field Practice (GIOFP) and its own Operations Integrity Management System (OIMS).
Additionally, EEPGL shall follow the required practice in the US Gulf of Mexico in calculating “Worst Case Discharge” and shall validate the assumptions and calculations by obtaining an independent assessment to develop an estimate of the flow that would result from an open hole well control event with loss of containment.
It is based on the independent assessment that will then be used as the basis for the Oil Spill Response Plan and oil spill modelling.
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