05-15-2013, 07:17 AM
'petrengr1' pid='22441' datel Wrote:Here is a little speculation for you. PPL 338 is 35% Oil Search, 35% Total Exploration and Production and 30% Kina Petroleum with Oil Search as Operator. Kina had the license, farmed out 70% to Oil Search and then Oil Search Farmed out half or their 70% to Total. Oil Search is the operator of PPL 338. IOC and Oil Search have an agreement to run a seismic program across the boundary between IOC's PPL 237 and the Oil Search JV PPL 338. If the seismic confirms that the Triceratops structure does extend onto the Oil Search JV PPL 338 they will need to drill a well to prove that they have gas on the PPL 338 License. Dave Holland said they plan to drill at least one well. I expect Oil Search to drill a well on their PPL 338 and I expect at least one of the six PRE well to be drilled at Triceratops will be in the Northwestern Area of IOC's PPL 237 license. See http://www.interoil.com/iocfiles/documen...0Final.pdf Page 18. David said if there is gas on both Licenses the State will require them to make a Unitization Agreement between the owner of the two licenses. Oil Search is the Operator of PPL 338 but their Partner Total is the second largest LNG Operator in the World. (I believe that statement was recently made by Total in a news interview) So, after (or maybe before) making the Unitization Agreement for the Triceratops Field it may be that IOC will have a sell down of their portion of Triceratops Field to a Major Operator. The Government wants a Major to be the Operator of the LNG operation. Total may be a perfect fit to become the Operator of the Triceratops Unit or perhaps all of PPL 237 but they will have to go through another competitive bid process to become the winner.
Agree on how the O&G Act applies to this situation. Will be interesting to see how long it takes DPE to approve the Tri PRL application. Once that's done and assuming Tri extends into the OSH/Total 338 license, it could be a very quick turn on another LNG project. We have yet to find out which blocks IOC/PRE have included in the PRL application. It could reach down to try and include some of the Duckbill/Raptor area unless they are convinced what they have at Tri/Bwata could source a separate LNG project.