Flaring at Liza Destiny vessel back to pilot level as damaged gas compressor reinstalled

Flaring at the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel has been reduced to the pilot level, ExxonMobil Guyana announced on Wednesday.

The oil major, in its latest operations update, said that a comprehensive three-phase testing programme has been initiated after the safe reinstatement of the repaired and upgraded components of its flash gas compression system.

“Over the last few days, the team successfully completed the first two phases, which were intended to verify the effectiveness of the modifications to the equipment and control system logic.  Pilot level flare was attained during the testing and a significant volume of process and mechanical data collected,” the operations update detailed.

ExxonMobil had been flaring natural gas above the level agreed to with the authorities – 15 million cubic feet – on the Liza Destiny since January 29 after a technical malfunction with its flash gas compression system.

From that period, the company was flaring between 16-18 million cubic feet of natural gas daily.

With the flash gas compressor reinstalled, ExxonMobil said the final stage of testing will take place this week with the after removal of temporary instrumentation.

It added that the third phase involves monitoring the performance of the machine closely in normal, steady-state operation.