Equity to be decided

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THE Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd (KPHL) is yet to decide how much equity it will take up in the Pasca A gas-condensate offshore project in Gulf, an official says.
KPHL managing director Wapu Sonk told The National yesterday that the State entity would have to conduct full diligence of the project first.
Twinza Oil Ltd is the operator of the country’s first gas-condensate offshore project.
“KPHL will undertake a detailed and due diligence on the Pasca project operator, their financial and operational capabilities, the license itself, the merits of the project as proposed, economics, technical, operational and development plan including marketing before we decide on our equity option of 22.5 per cent in the project,” Sonk said.
“Until such a process has been completed, we are not in a position to comment on the project as proposed by Twinza.”
Prime Minister James Marape last Friday said Cabinet had endorsed a submission on the Pasca project and was ready to start negotiating a gas agreement with the operator.
Cabinet endorsed KPHL as the State’s nominee in the project.
KPHL is at liberty to decide whether to take up the statutory equity of 22.5 per cent in the project.
Twinza Oil this week said a gas agreement for the project would set out fiscal terms to allow it to enter the front-end engineering and design phase later this year. It said the gas agreement would represent a key commercialisation milestone, and is the culmination of years of work by Twinza and the Department of Petroleum and Energy.