KPHL awarded licence

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
KUMUL Petroleum Holdings Ltd (KPHL) has been awarded the petroleum retention licence (PRL) 47 – the Pandora gas field.
It is the fourth licence to be awarded to the country’s national oil and gas company.
Petroleum Minister Kerenga Kua said the license was a field of around one trillion cubic feet of dry gas.
“These (four) are financial licences,” Kua said.
“The financial impact may not be considerable, but the ideology behind it, using the existing laws, is revolutionary.
“We have carved out a new way for the State to make more money and make it quicker.
“In the past we could not do something like this because an entity like Kumul (Petroleum) was not around.”
“KPHL managing director Wapu Sonk said PRL 47 was a discovered gas field.
“This is a licence that has been discovered but was not commercialised by people that have had the licence,” Sonk said.
“The license has expired.
“So the licence was then given back to the Department of Petroleum and Energy and new interested parties (then) apply.”
The petroleum advisory board, the independent body that asses the financial, technical, commercial and capabilities of the applicants, decide who to give it to.
“KPHL was fortunate to have been selected to be the licensee in this discovered gas field.
“All (four) fields add up to about 3 tcf of gas, 100 per cent controlled by Kumul Petroleum.
“The onus is now on Kumul Petroleum to find suitable partners, come up with suitable, feasible, economically viable and commercial development options to develop those licenses and basically make it commercial.”
He said the gas fields had been left stranded for a reason.
“Some of them are a little bit too small for LNG projects but it is enough reserve for petrochemical industry.
“We are looking at all those different options.”