Gas plant explosion at Texas highlights dangers of Wales project
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Kaieteur News – A Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Texas USA on Wednesday last burst into flames, leaving nearby residents rattled over the possible negative impacts they can be exposed to.
A screenshot of the explosion taken from a video uploaded by a resident who lives near the Texas Gas Plant
No injuries were reported and it is understood that investigations are still ongoing to determine the cause of the explosion. The plant is expected to be offline for about three weeks as technicians hurry to restart operations, amid a shortage of supplies on the global market. One media outlet indicated that the blast at Freeport LNG’s export terminal on Texas’ Quintana Island was reported around noon. However, while authorities have said that the fire and “release” from the explosion were swiftly contained, residents who live near the facility fears they will be kept in the dark. A reporter from Common Dreams- an organization established in the US since 1997- spoke to a few of the citizens who underscored that they have been living in fear while the business owners have been getting rich.
“This is terrifying,” said Melanie Oldham, founder of Citizens for Clean Air and Clean Water in Brazoria County, where the Freeport LNG facility is located. “We’ve been afraid of a disaster happening ever since Freeport LNG started exporting gas. We shouldn’t have to live in fear just so gas executives like [company CEO] Michael Smith can get rich.”
“This is dangerous business,” Oldham added. “What kind of air monitoring are they doing out there? Will they even be able to tell what the explosion released? And will they tell us? Thankfully it looks like none of the workers or anyone else was injured or killed. We may not be so lucky the next time there’s an explosion at this plant, or any of the polluting facilities surrounding us, for that matter.”
“I saw it blow up from my job site—biggest fireball I’ve ever seen,” said one Freeport resident. The facility is one of the largest LNG export plants in the United States, exporting about two billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day, about 15 percent of the nation’s LNG exports.
Harold Doty, who lives on Quintana Island, warned that “there is still no emergency action plan for that plant” despite Wednesday’s explosion. “Originally, the plant said that people on the island should go to the beach and have the Coast Guard pick them up in boats,” said Doty. “Freeport LNG really doesn’t care about us. This is not the first fire. There are often fire alarms at the plant that I can hear from my house. I can never get any explanation when I call, so I’ve quit calling.”
The explosion at the gas terminal comes at a time when Guyana is rushing to setup its own LNG plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara in partnership with oil giant-ExxonMobil. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project has already been submitted to the local authorising body, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Notably, this document has said that Guyana will not be immune to gas explosions at the site, listing the activity as a likely event.
But even though US$1.3 billion will be expended to merely set up the onshore and offshore pipeline works for the facility, along with other ancillary works, Guyana has no insurance from the developer, should such an event occur. In fact, Exxon has not even submitted a Gas Leak Management Plan to the EPA for considerations to be made in the permitting process. Instead, Exxon has promised to have the document ready about a year before the plant starts its operations at Wales. In addition, the Gas to Energy Project Manager, Mr. Friedrich Krispin has indicated that Exxon and its partners will not walk away from any accidents, but will help Guyana should an unfortunate event take place at the proposed facility.
According to him, “Responsibility is something that lawyers tell us not to talk about…because there are a lot of interesting legal ramifications with responsibility but the one thing I can tell you is; I can say from 35 years of experience and I can say from knowing the history of a 140 years of this corporation we don’t walk away from incidents, issues, accidents etcetera, we make sure that we take care of things, we make sure that we clean up where we left, we make sure that we clean up the environment if there is an incident and we make sure that things are left very much like we found them.”
When he was pressed further to say when a document would be signed, specifically to secure an insurance policy to cover any mishaps, Krispin said he could not respond. “Unfortunately I can’t speak to that it is something the legal department is working through. They have commitments with the government of Guyana and I have read some of them stuff but I can’t speak on their behalf but I am sure that they are always gonna do the right thing,” he shared.
ExxonMobil can reclaim all costs expended on this venture from Guyana’s oil revenue, in keeping with the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). This means that Guyana will be paying for the project, even though the returns are not definitive. Government hopes to generate some 300 megawatts of power through this venture, even though no feasibility study has been done.
Wales GTE project
ExxonMobil is aiming to start construction works as soon as possible, after receiving all necessary authorisations, with a target date of August 2022 for the start of NGL Plant site preparation, which is expected to be completed in approximately three years. The pipeline system is targeted to be ready to deliver rich gas by end of 2024, and the NGL Plant is targeted to be operational by mid-2025. The Project has a planned life cycle of at least 25 years.
The Project will involve capturing associated gas produced from crude oil production operations on the Liza Phase 1 (Destiny) and Liza Phase 2 (Unity) Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, transporting approximately 50 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd; 1.4 million standard cubic meters per day [MMsm3/d]) of rich gas via a subsea pipeline and then an onshore pipeline to a natural gas liquids processing plant to treat the gas to remove NGLs for sale to third parties, and ultimately delivering dry gas meeting government specifications for use at the Power Plant.