Cepa to assess proposition

THE Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (Cepa) says it has received and accepted the Upstream Environmental Impact Statement for upstream components of the Papua LNG project for formal assessment .
This project consists of developing a significant find of natural gas and gas condensate resources in the Elk and Antelope gas fields in Gulf.
They are located at approximately 120km northwest of Kerema, within petroleum retention licence 15 in the Baimuru local level government in Kikori. The upstream component of the project covers the gas field infrastructure including production wells, in-field pipelines, access roads and tracks, a central processing facility and associated infrastructure such as camps, workshops, storage areas and a logistics base on the bank of the Purari River.
The upstream component also includes gas and condensate export pipelines which will transport natural gas and condensate from the central processing facility to the coast and then by two submarine pipelines to the existing PNG LNG plant site lease boundary at Caution Bay, which is located on the coast approximately 20 kilometres outside Port Moresby.
Cepa managing director Gunther Joku said the authority would make the environmental impact statement available for public review.
“Extensive consultations with the provincial governments, district development authorities, local level governments, local communities affected by the project and other key stakeholders will be carried out by Cepa,” he said. Joku said apart from Cepa’s internal assessment of the Papua LNG project upstream environmental impact statement, they would also engage independent experts to conduct technical assessments of it.
He said public and stakeholder comments and the findings and assessment from consultations would be collected and reviewed .