Lot’s of stuff going on…
Two LNG projects for PNG
SHEILA LASIBORI
PAPUA New Guinea now has two liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma said.
He said this moments after the Government and developer of the Elk/Antelope LNG project, InterOil, signed the project agreement at Government House in Port Moresby.
“The signing means there are now two LNG projects and if both are realised, they will bring big benefits for this country.
“The project agreement now paves the way forward in the implementation phase,” he said.
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare said he was pleased that “we get a second LNG coming through at the Christmas eve. It must be the feeling of Him (referring to God) that decided that PNG should be blessed during this Christmas eve”.
He acknowledged everyone from the State departments, Gulf provincial government and administration, project joint venture partners and landowners alike.
The gas agreement between the Government and Liquid Niugini Gas Ltd (LNGL) which is 52%-owned by InterOil, was signed yesterday for the construction of the LNG complex for processing resource.
The agreement was signed by acting Governor-General Dr Allan Marat, Mr Duma, InterOil’s chief executive officer and chairman Phil Mulacek and executive director Christian Vinson and was witnessed by State Solicitor George Minjihau in a packed room which included departmental heads, company executives and other dignitaries.
“These two projects are the ideal Christmas presents that we can give to the people of Papua New Guinea,” Sir Michael said.
With the project agreement in place, Mr Mulacek said financing was the next thing on the list of things to do which would be done together with project partners including Petromin PNG Holdings Ltd (for State’s 22.5% interest) and Department of Petroleum and Energy.
“We have a number of people that are interested in the financing. We are going to evaluate with the Department and the Government and our partner Petromin,” he said.
It is understood a Japanese group had made a financing proposal to the Prime Minister’s Department details of which were not immediately available.
Mr Duma said the initial proposal was for a 360km pipeline and LNG processing facility to be built at Napanapa for the gas to be supplied initially from Elk/Antelope gas fields in Gulf province.
Petromin managing director Joshua Kalinoe said: “The project has provisions for domestic market obligations for third party access … the Elk/Antelope project will give more value in terms of downstream processing businesses such as power generation and petrochemical industries.”
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And even more interesting:
FEED for second gas project on: Mulacek
SHEILA LASIBORI
THE US$450 million (K1.22 billion) front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for the second liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has finally started after almost two years of delays.
The pre-FEED started two months ago when Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare gave his assurance that the project agreement would be signed, InterOil Corp’s chief executive officer and chairman Phil Mulacek said
And the US$450 million (K1.22 billion) FEED for the LNG itself would start later during the course of the project now that project developer InterOil Corp and the National Government have signed the deal.
Mr Mulacek said the FEED, which started two months ago, was that of early condensate and also had commissioned some of the early work for the Elk/Antelope project in Wabo, Gulf province.
“Pre-FEED, heavy pre-FEED and earlier condensate began two months ago and along the way everything else will fall into place,” he said, adding there were bigger partners being considered for the FEED work and InterOil was now in the process of selecting them.
“Some technical work we will get done and others will wait for bigger partners,” he said.
FEED was to have started in January last year, 30 days after a project agreement was signed, but this had not happened until two months ago following Sir Michael’s verbal assurance for an agreement.
Liquid Niugini Gas Ltd (LNGL), a company in which InterOil has 52% ownership, was to have executed the FEED following negotiations also on engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) it held with Bechtel in December 2007.
The US$450 million (K1.22 billion) was put together for FEED by the joint venture partners during the initial stages of the project.
“We are designing a plant that will last for decades with proven technology, so that means, we are going to have a lot of cost-efficiencies versus other applications,” Mr Mulacek said.
Petromin PNG Holdings Ltd, a 100% State-owned entity, will participate in the project for the Government’s 22.5% (2% for landowners) interest in the project.
According to InterOil, the LNG project targeted a US$6.0 billion (K17 billion) two-train LNG facility, with each train capable of producing about four million tonnes of LNG per year.
