(05-14-2013, 07:04 AM)sltibbs Wrote: Press release today says, "On March 28, 2013 , the Minister for Petroleum & Energy approved and the DPE registered the deferral of the well commitments for PPL 236 and PPL 238." That helps. Best, Sam
Here is the present situation of the IOC Licenses and my opinion of how things will play out in the future.
PRL 15 expires November 29, 2015. I expect that a PDL will be granted after reaching an agreement and FID with our new partner. At present that appears to be Exxon.
PRL? for Triceratops. I believe IOC has applied for a PRL for the Triceratops Field. I expect the Government to grant that PRL in the near future and that will give us another 5 year PRL license. We should be able to get a PDL license during that five year period. A PDL has an initial term of 25 years and an extension period of 20 additional years.
PPL 236 and PPL 237 expire March 27, 2014 and PPL 238 expires March 6, 2014. I think IOC will drill Tuna -1 in PPL 238 and Whaoo-1in PPL 236 before the current license expires. The Government has approved our request for a variance as indicated in the 1st Quarter MD&A: “On March 28, 2013, the DPE
approved the deferral of the well commitments for PPL 236 and PPL 238.” After drilling these two wells IOC will have completed the agreed work program for the term of the licenses. Since IOC is one of PNG’s most active and successful exploration companies I think the Government will grant NEW licenses to IOC to “effectively” extend the licenses. I think the way this is likely to happen is that either before or upon license expiration, the Government will issue NEW licenses to IOC with NEW PPL Number designations for these same areas. So the old licenses will expire or be replaced before they expire with new licenses. The new PPL licenses will be just like any other new license. The new licenses will have an initial term of 6 years and will be renewable for 5 additional years. IOC may have to relinquish half of the area after the first 6 years unless they submit a work program that shows they intended to develop or actively explore all of the area.
If we could get the Government Approval for new licenses before the old licenses expire that would no doubt expedite the bringing in of new farm out partners in all of the PPL’s as any new prospective partners would like to be assured of having more than a few months. I would like to see IOC get a significant (if not Major) farm out partner that would have the money and expertise to aggressively explore and develop the new license areas early in the first term.