Liza Destiny on schedule for September arrival

─ Liza Unity construction underway

 DPI, Guyana, Friday, July 26, 2019

The Liza Destiny – Guyana’s first Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading vessel is on schedule to arrive in September to commence oil production for the Liza Phase 1 project in the Stabroek Block in early 2020.

This is according to ExxonMobil’s Senior Director of Public and Government Affairs, Deedra Moe in a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI). The custom-built vessel will be moored in water with a depth of 1,525 meters and will be able to store 1.6 million barrels of crude oil. “Liza Destiny is currently in the Indian Ocean and will be travelling around South Africa and will be coming straight over to Guyanese waters in early September,” ExxonMobil’s Senior Director told DPI.

Moe explained that two tugs are being utilised to ensure the safe and timely voyage of the vessel. During the voyage, the team on board will be conducting additional checks and will be engaged in emergency response activities and additional training.

The Liza Destiny, which measures 350 meters in length – twice the size of the Guyana National Stadium – was described as Exxon’s “most important piece” in the company’s production efforts in Guyana’s waters. The ExxonMobil official explained that while it is an FPSO vessel, Liza Destiny serves more as a manufacturing facility. “The wells that are being drilled will come up flow lines into the production, it will clean up the oil, remove the water and any natural gas, separate it and then store it. Then it will offload into tankers.”

The FPSO vessel will be stationed approximately 190 km or 120 miles, offshore, an hour-ride via helicopter. She revealed that an even larger vessel will join its sister ship, later as production ramps up.

“It’s about nearly twice the size in terms of capacity because Liza Phase 1 is about 120,000 barrels (oil) a day at max and Liza Phase 2, the Unity is going to be built for 220,000 barrels (oil) almost double the size but that’s well underway as well,” Moe disclosed.

According to the ExxonMobil official, the Liza Destiny FPSO was transformed from the oil tanker, “Tina”, a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. The contract for its conversion was awarded to SBM Offshore in July 2017.

In June 2019, First Lady, Her Excellency, Sandra Granger travelled to Singapore where she officially commissioned the Liza Destiny on June 22 at the Keppel Shipyard before it departed Singapore on July 18 for Guyana’s waters.

During normal operations, there will be at least 80 persons living and working onboard the vessel. 24 Operations and Maintenance Technicians, who are currently being trained in Canada, will return in 2020 to support work on the Liza Destiny.