Conservationist questions Guyana’s level of preparedness for an oil spill

The Oil and Gas sector has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is the widespread destruction to the environment an oil spill can cause. According to a notable environmental activist, Guyana’s safeguards against an oil spill still leave much to be desired.
According to long time conservationist Annette Arjoon, there is still no comprehensive national oil response plan. This is even as ExxonMobil’s commercial production of oil is slated to begin two years from now.

“Am I satisfied that enough preparations are in place for an oil spill? The answer is no, for many reasons,” she related, during an interview with this publication on the sidelines of the Guyana International Petroleum Business Summit. “We’ve only been privileged to have a look at the (oil agreement with Exxon) two months ago, and there’s very little as regards the environmental safeguards,” she declared.
“Apart from that and a few discussions that the oil spill response plan is being developed, we’re yet to have a comprehensive national oil spill plan, which will only be the beginning of a long journey,” she continued. “But then you need people who are trained to be a part of that national response. I do know that our Civil Defence Commission is the focal agency with regard to response, with MARAD (Maritime Administration Department).”
Arjoon expressed the hope that the Marine Conservation Society will seek partnerships with those agencies in order to play its role. However, she was also concerned that enough is not being done to get persons, such as residents of Region One (Baraima/Waini), involved in the conversation.
Region one is home to Shell Beach, one of Guyana’s National Protected Areas. The beach is renowned for being a nesting site to four of the world’s seven sea turtle species, most of which are endangered. They include the Leatherback, the largest of all living turtles whether sea or otherwise, and perhaps the best known one; while the Hawksbill, Olive Ridley and the Green Turtle are the other species. These all seek refuge at the beach.
“Thus far, they (Region One residents) have not been invited to participate, but I do look forward to (them engaging) in the months to come, and also for Exxon itself to (visit). As much as they’ve done simulation oil spill response training in the man-made lake at Splashmins, the conditions in Region One in our marine waters are vastly and dramatically different,” she said.
“So I urge (Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited and) the relevant partners to also go into Region One to get this done. We have a robust regional administration. We have the Mayor and Town Clerk who are veterans in that area. We have the Shell Beach rangers who have been doing this work for decades. We have all the raw elements that are ready to participate,” she detailed.
That said, she acknowledged that Guyana’s oil industry is still fairly raw, and so observed that in the coming months, only time will tell whether certain standards have been reached regarding Guyana’s oil spill preparedness.
Capacity
Last year, it was announced that the Audit Office of Guyana (AOG) would commence a number of environmental audits in 2018. These audits, Auditor General Deodat Sharma had said, would analyse the capacity of the country’s relevant agencies to protect the environment and endangered species of animals in case of a disaster.
Asked what areas the environmental audit would cover, Sharma had identified Region One.
“As you know, North West (Region One) has the four turtle (species). We have to preserve those, because we don’t want to have an oil spill and it could be dangerous. I remember several years ago, there was the cyanide overspill. It had an effect on the environment in the interior.”
This is a reference to the cyanide spill in Guyana in 1995. In gold mining, cyanide is used as an extracting agent for the ore. In the case of Guyana’s cyanide spill, the highly poisonous material spilled out of a reservoir into the Essequibo River.
Guyana does not have to look far to see examples of the long term effects of oil spills. Effects from an Exxon oil tanker spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Alaska (popularly known as the Valdez oil spill) in 1989 are still felt today on the environment. And cleaning up oil spills can costs billions of US dollars.
For instance, British Petroleum’s (BP) expended approximately $14 billion in clean-up costs after its Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank in 2010. The disaster killed eleven persons on board and nearly five million barrels of oil were released underwater before the well was capped.
In 2016, President David Granger commissioned Guyana’s first oil spill response operation service at the Gaico Wharf at Nismes, West Bank Demerara. Gaico Oil Spill Response Operation Services, a name coined by Komal Singh, was set up as a pre-emptive measure against probable spillage once production commences in the future. The company has previous experience in construction.