Market ready for gas from offshore field, says Kowa

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THERE is a guaranteed market for the gas which will be extracted from the Pasca A field in Gulf by Twinza Oil (PNG) Limited, according to gas project development manager Eric Kowa.
“The LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cooking gas we have in Papua New Guinea comes from Saudi Arabia – most of it,” Kowa said.
“It’s imported into Australia and re-exported into PNG.
“LPG cooking gas is widely traded.
“Indonesia is the biggest LPG market, some parts of Asia too.  And condensate is also traded widely, premium to crude oil.
“It is easily traded commodity. We have markets lined up to take the product.”
Kowa said it was different from the liquefied natural gas projects which normally tried to secure markets beforehand.
“With LNG, you have to negotiate with off-taker contracts on getting your product,” he said.
Gregory Balavue, the acting assistant director with the exploration branch at Department of Petroleum and Energy, said the project would supply the PNG market with LPG.
“That’s looking at cutting down on monopoly with LPG supplier so you and I can have a better price for our bottle of gas,” he said.
He said the department had given Twinza the approval to start drilling.
“For Twinza Oil, they have license numbered PPL (petroleum prospecting license) 328.
“They have a six-year programme and they have come to the sixth year. At the same time, they have started the idea of developing the Pasca Gas project.
“They submitted their PDL (petroleum development license) application and we went through a review and we reached a conclusion that Twinza need to drill a well – so that’s the stage we are in now.
“We have reviewed the programme, we have approved it, and they just need to get the rig to site and drill. We would like to develop a lot of gas fields in the country. One of them is the Pasca (A) field.”