Companies report increase in P’nyang gas resources

Oil Search Ltd., Sydney and Port Moresby, has reported a tripling of 1C gross contingent natural gas resources in P’nyang gas field in retention lease PRL3 in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

The company said an independent recertification by Netherland, Sewell & Associates had put the new 1C figure at 3.51 tcf of gas while certified 2C contingent gas resources had increased to 4.36 tcf.

The recertification incorporated the results of the recent successful P’nyang South-2ST1 appraisal well as well as additional seismic and core data.

Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten said the increase is an excellent result and broadly in line with the company’s internal resource estimates following the remapping of the field with reprocessed seismic data.

Combined with gas resources in the Elk-Antelope fields in the Eastern Highlands retention lease PRL15, Oil Search calculates there is now about 11 tcf of certified undeveloped 2C gas resource available to support the proposed development of 8 million tonnes/year of additional LNG capacity at the existing PNG-LNG project plant near Port Moresby.

Botten added that the 8 tcf or more of 1C resource will be of great assistance to marketing activities within each venture.

Discussions about the preferred development concept for LNG expansion—a proposed one new train served by gas from P’nyang and the PNG-LNG Project fields and two trains dedicated to the Papua LNG Project supplied from Elk-Antelope—are ongoing. The aim is to begin front-end engineering and design on this expansion proposal in this year’s second half.

ExxonMobil Corp. also endorsed the addition of close to 2 tcf of gas to P’nyang field’s resource estimate, saying the increase illustrates the “tremendous growth opportunities for the company’s operations in Papua New Guinea.”

Liam Mallon, president of ExxonMobil Development Co., said the investment in the proposed development of P’nyang would extend the gas pipeline into the country’s Western Province and have a meaningful and lasting economic impact for Papua New Guinea and its people.

Interests in P’nyang field are ExxonMobil as operator with 49%, Oil Search with 38.5%, and JX Nippon of Japan with 12.5% interest.

Interests in the Elk-Antelope fields are Total SA as operator with 40.1%, ExxonMobil 37.1%, and Oil Search 22.8% interest.