Horizon Oil boss praises PNG’s capacity to deliver major projects

Business

PAPUA New Guinea has been described as a pro-development jurisdiction with an excellent track record of delivering major projects and is located close to the growing liquefied natural gas markets of South East Asia.
Horizon Oil chief executive Brent Emmett, pictured, told senior oil and gas industry executives at a recent RIU Good Oil Conference in Perth “all of this adds up to PNG being a very attractive place in which to invest”.
Emmett was updating the industry on Horizon Oil’s proposed Western LNG project which seeks to aggregate a number of Western gas fields to develop 2.0 to 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 60 to 70 million barrels of condensate.
The aim is to export the gas and condensate via pipeline and an offshore LNG facility which will have a capacity of around 1.5 million tonnes per annum.
Crucially, the resources slated to participate in Western LNG are held by six participants, with almost 70 per cent concentrated in the hands of just two parties – Horizon Oil of Australia and the Spanish major Repsol.
“This consolidation of ownership is important as it will make the process of development planning and aggregation simpler than if you were working with a widely dispersed ownership group,” Emmett said.
Emmett said the LNG market was becoming rapidly aware of the potential of smaller LNG developments.
“We’re not really seeking out the traditional large-scale LNG customers and we’re not competing with the large scale LNG producers,” Emmett said.