May 27, 2020
The company’s biggest play outside the US Permian Basin presents significant climate risks
As ExxonMobil holds its 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders today, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) calls on the company to stop flaring gas offshore in Guyana, the site of its biggest oil development outside the U.S. Permian Basin. The flaring, which far exceeds levels authorized by the Guyanese government, releases greenhouse gases and toxins, threatening the global climate, the local environment, and public health.
“Exxon has neither been forthcoming with information about the flaring nor taken adequate measures to prevent this harmful and unnecessary practice in the first place,” said Nikki Reisch, Director of CIEL’s Climate & Energy Program. The company initially downplayed the flaring that has occurred since it started production in Guyana last December. Only after passing coast guard and air pilots spotted huge flames did the company admit to flaring significant quantities of gas.
“Exxon claims the flaring was temporary and exceptional, due to failures of equipment designed to reinject the gas into the ground,” Reisch continued. “If so, that bodes poorly for the company’s capacity or willingness to mitigate other foreseeable environmental impacts, not to mention any potential disasters that could accompany deepwater operations.”
But the magnitude and duration of the flaring suggests more than a one-time, technical glitch. According to Guyana’s environmental agency, Exxon has flared an estimated 9 billion cubic feet of gas—not the 2 billion the company first claimed. That puts Guyana among the top ten gas flaring countries in the world—even though the first oil was lifted from Guyana’s waters just six months ago. The carbon dioxide emissions from that flaring are approximately equivalent to the amount generated by Guyana’s entire population over three months.
And the problem risks getting worse over time as Exxon moves forward to extract the estimated 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil it has discovered off Guyana’s coast. The volume of gas extracted with the oil has reportedly doubled since production started in December.
“The Guyanese people were sold the myth of endless revenue from oil and gas sales,” concluded Reisch. “With oil prices plummeting and gas so worthless that Exxon would rather burn it than capture and sell it, Guyana’s people deserve to ask whether the false promise of oil wealth will be enough to outweigh the mounting costs of climate reality.”
Despite repeated commitments to end flaring in its operations, Exxon remains among the worst culprits globally.
Melinda Janki, who has worked as a lawyer in the oil industry, says that Esso’s environmental permit prohibits routine flaring. “The excuse is that this flaring was an emergency but I do not see how an emergency can last 6 months. We are told that the flaring was for safety but everybody knows that greenhouse gas emissions pollute the air, are dangerous to health, and are causing catastrophic climate change. If Esso cannot operate safely without flaring billions of cubic feet of natural gas then the EPA must shut down Esso’s operations for the sake of the Guyanese people, especially Guyana’s young people who are entitled to an environmentally sustainable future.”
“ExxonMobil’s whole plan to develop oil in Guyana threatens to transform the country into a carbon bomb,” said Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney in CIEL’s Climate & Energy Program. “Wasteful and harmful gas flaring is just one more way that is happening.”
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For press inquires, please contact Cate Bonacini, cbonacini (at) ciel.org