Board extends licence

PETROLEUM Minister Kerenga Kua has announced the extension of Petroleum Retention Licence (PRL) 15 coinciding with the signing of the Papua LNG project fiscal stability agreement on Tuesday.
The PRL 15 joint venture partners’ application was received by the Department of Petroleum and Energy on Feb 3.
Technical reviews followed until Feb 8 when the petroleum advisory board recommended to the minister to grant the extension.
“The PRL15 licence has good standing in the last two terms (10 years) and the JV partners have met work commitments under its conditions.”
The term of the PRL15 extension begins on Nov 30, 2021.
The licenses will spend a minimum budget of US$45 million (around K144 million).
Kua said during the final five-year term of the PRL 15 extension, the joint venture partners would conduct project financing activities and strategic market studies.
“Studies will include the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the timing of long-term LNG demand recovery to support timely economic development of the Papua LNG project,” he said.
“The work programmed for PRL 15 extension include technical activities as appropriate to prepare for front-end-engineering and design (Feed).
“This will lead to execution of Feed and eventually a Financial Investment Decision (FID) down the path.”
Kua said the licence conditions had a solid work programme that the department had approved for the final term of the PRL15.