PNG’s new gas prospect
By frank Mills
Papua New Guinea could find itself with a major new petroleum project supplying gas and liquids to markets in Asia, if Talisman Energy’s extensive exploration effort in Western Province continues to make discoveries.
Talisman is a Canadian company, producing and exploring for gas and oil in several regions across the world, and now exploring in PNG.
Talisman’s executive vice president for the SE Asian region, Paul Blakeley, said in Singapore recently that the company expected to have new production coming on line in both Vietnam and Papua New Guinea in the next two years.
The company reports that the exploration and appraisal wells already drilled in Talisman’s 12 operated and non-operated acreage on either side of the Strickland and Fly Rivers, have identified 1.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas (gross 2C contingent resource). A gas export project, aggregating the production from several fields to an export facility in the Western Province, could be commercially viable on a basis of 2 to 4 tcf of 2C resource (gross).
Exploration drilling and an extensive seismic acquisition program for more leads is continuing in 2013 across a wide area, stretching from Kiunga upstream past Nomad, and east to the slopes of Mt Bosavi. Talisman holds a total licence area of almost 30,000 square kilometres (gross), an area approximately the size of Taiwan or half of the State of Tasmania. Talisman is working to consolidate the base camp at Yavo on the Strickland River, supporting the company’s drilling rig and a second rig belonging to Parker Drilling, both rigs operated by Parker. The drilling and seismic programs are supported by two BK helicopters provided by HeliNiugini and a giant Chinook heavy-lifting helicopter operated by Columbia Helicopters.
Up to five hundred local men are being recruited into the seismic work program, cutting the tracks that criss-cross the acreage, and more people are expected to be trained for work in drilling.
Since Talisman began operating in the Western Province in 2009, over a million Kina a year has been invested in a community benefits program, working in close co-operation with churches, schools, community groups and the Provincial Government. The emphasis is on improving health and education outcomes for local communities. Doctor visits, immunisation programs and local clinics are arriving in remote areas, where small isolated communities seldom see government services.
Talisman Energy Niugini is a quiet achiever, not as high-profile as the Kutubu and Hide- based LNG Project or the planned InterOil development in the Gulf Province. But in the far western lowlands of the country, all the signs are visible that another big thing in oil and gas could be on the way.