Joint Gulf gas development makes commercial sense

A COMBINED development of two offshore gas fields in Gulf would make commercial sense, according to Kina Petroleum, the company that holds petroleum retention licence (PRL) 38 for the Pandora field.
This was one of several updates contained in the company’s quarterly announcement to the Port Moresby Stock Exchange (PomSox) on the various exploration licences it holds in Gulf, Western and Central.
The Pandora gas field contains a gross contingent resource of 900 billion cubic feet of gas. Kina Petroleum believes the resource size would need to increase to be economic on a stand-alone basis.
It also noted that it was possible for such an increase in the licence area based on well and seismic data.
“That possibility aside, PRL 38’s Pandora fields are less than 100km from the Pasca fields where Twinza is seeking to develop the smaller gas field by exploiting the associated liquids with the gas reinjected for later development”, according to the company’s PomSox announcement.
“Kina has no participating interest in the Pasca fields, but Pasca and Pandora combined, have the potential to underpin an aggregated development.
“With that in mind we watch the progress of development at Pasca with interest, but the Pandora fields have a larger gas content than Pasca and so would likely serve as a foundation resource for any future gas aggregation project.
“Accordingly, and so as not to leave resources like Pandora stranded, development and exploration objectives for gas development in the offshore Gulf of Papua need to be strategically directed towards confirming the resource threshold that will underpin future and timely development.”
Kina Petroleum has 25 per cent interest in Pandora of which Twinza Oil, the lead operator for adjacent Pasca field, also has a 40 per cent interest in.