Kumul still to decide on stake in Pasca project

The National Business

By Shirley Mauludu
KUMUL Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) will decide whether to take up a stake in the Pasca A field project after an assessment of the project, managing director Wapu Sonk says.
The K938 million project will be developed by Twinza Oil Ltd about 90km off the Gulf coast.
“KPHL will do an assessment of the project economics which includes reserves estimation, development concept, financing and marketing etc before we exercise our right in the Pasca Project for the usual 22.5 per cent as mandated by law,” Sonk said.
“The Pasca licence is only drilling delineation well now and that well need to be drilled to total depth to establish the gas water contact, perform some flowing and build-up test and then we will know what the resource size is and build the development plan that suits the resource.
“We are quite some way away from development.”
In a recent interview, Twinza Oil (PNG) Limited gas project development manager Eric Kowa said currently the company had full ownership over the project area.
“The licence at Pasca field right now is 100 per cent owned by Twinza – until such time when Government takes its State interest as per the Oil and Gas Act (1998),” Kowa said.
On land ownership, Kowa said under the Oil and Gas Act, “you have to conduct a study and commission a study called social mapping and landowner identification study”.
“At the conclusion of the study, at 90 to 95km out into the ocean, there is no guarantee of landownership,” he said. “So that means the prerogative is on either the provincial government or the State.”
He said the Government  would decide how to handle this.
“It’s something for the two gov ernments to decide how they handle this. That means the Government by law, in oil and gas projects, takes up 20.5 per cent equity stake in a new project that are going to development phase.
“There’s a two per cent that the Government also carry, and by law that is freely for the landowners.
“In a case like ours, it is going to be an interesting discussion as to how the Government does that.”