Big players seek tie-up with NGE

Business, Normal
Source:

The National,Friday 09th December 2011

By YEHIURA HRIEHWAZI
NEW Guinea Energy, an oil and gas exploration junior in the Papuan foreland is being courted by a number of big players wanting to get into partnership with it.
NGE did release names of the players approaching it, however it announced to its shareholders on Wednesday that it had received a “number of unsolicited approaches” for its exploration acreage in the Gulf and Western provinces.
The approaches come on the back of a successful mining and petroleum conference staged in Port Moresby last week which was attended by some of the world’s major players who were looking for opportunities to re-enter PNG.
NGE’s general manager for technical and operationsDan Kendrick made a presentation on the company’s exploration programme and said it had acquired a new oil rig which was cleared from customs last week and would be taken to Western province soon to joint other rigs at exploration sites.
NGE said it has appointed RBC Capital Markets to assist in an unexpected strategic review to position itself for further talks with the companies  interested in its operations in the hydrocarbon rich area.
“NGE’s PPLs in PNG has had and continues to have discussions with certain third parties in relation to potential transactions,” the explorer said.
“These discussions are continuing but remain incomplete.
“There is no certainty as to whether they will lead to a proposal for consideration by the company’s directors or shareholders.”
NGE had six petroleum prospecting licences in PNG and there are indications Oil Search will spud the Trapia 1 (formerly Huria) well in the March quarter at a location near the border of NGE’s PPL 277.
Ongoing exploration over the next six months could also help prove up the potential of PNG’s Western province, where NGE had considerable exploration acreage
A number of the company’s prospects were already in the process of being de-risked by current drilling activities in adjacent properties.
Several petroleum majors operated nearby and had an established presence in Papua New Guinea including Exxon- Mobil, InterOil, LNG Energy, Oil Search, Horizon Oil, Eaglewood Energy and Talisman.
NGE’s six licences cover more than 44,800sqkm and NGE is the operator of four of them while joint venture partner Talis­man operates the other two licences.
The company had 101 leads and prospects and total gross prospective resources of 6,000 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Two appraisal wells by the ExxonMobil-Oil Search joint venture and three others involving Talisman would assist New Guinea Energy without the company having to drill a well.
The company was poised to benefit from the rapid expansion of the oil and gas infrastructure boosted by projects such as the PNG LNG Ex­xonMobil led project, and with its partner Talisman providing substantial support.
The company had a strong cash position of A$29 million at the end of the September quarter it provided New Guinea Energy with the necessary capital to complete its working programme commitment for the first-half  of next year