Papua New Guinea runs rule over Pandora bids
By Russell Searancke
30 August 2013 00:00 GMT
THE Papua New Guinea government has completed an initial review of the applications it received for the Pandora offshore gas discovery, writes Russell Searancke.
The Pandora field had to be relinquished earlier this year by a Talisman Energy-led joint venture because it had been held under retention lease for 15 years and, under PNG law, that is the maximum validity for such a licence.
It is understood that up to 10 applications were filed from oil and gas companies keen to take over the Pandora field, and the Petroleum Advisory Board has met to review the offers, said sources.
It is possible the advisory board will produce a shortlist of three bidders, but at this stage there is no indication of timing of an award. The previous owners of the field were a star-studded group comprising Talisman, Oil Search, ExxonMobil, Eni and Claremont Petroleum.
Sources said they are all contenders to take on the field again within a new joint venture, while Total and Shell are also potential candidates.
Pandora is an old field discovered in 1988. It has contingent reserves exceeding 1 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The field has remained undeveloped for two reasons — there is no domestic gas market to underpin its development, and it has a high sulphur content so any field development would have to deal with this “slightly sour gas”, previous part-owner Oil Search once said.

