‘No leakage’ on LNG pipeline

By MARK HAIHUIE
The PNG LNG pipeline is intact and suffered “no leakage” during the earthquakes, says Oil Search managing director Peter Botten.
He was commenting on how Oil Search was managing risks of environmental damage which could have occurred in its facilities and the PNG LNG project as a whole.
“I am pleased to say that from reports that we have had from the LNG facilities, the statement from ExxonMobil and also I know that our own production facilities have maintained integrity throughout and also the aftershocks,” Botten said.
“We have not seen any evidence of leaks or any environmental impacts from a loss of integrity of our plant.
“That is a very positive sign. We monitor and can see the pressure for each well and along the pipeline and there does not appear to be any leakage at all.”
He told The National that most damage was at the company’s camps which had delayed reconstruction.
“The actual plant site and facilities have been designed for substantial earthquakes as part of the criteria for when we build things,” he said.
“Ironically, the big damage has been in the camps where a lot of the camp material and facilities have been damaged. Of course you need people in the camps to rebuild and to also rebuild the camps themselves.
“We had originally on 24 worksites seismic activity right up on the Western-Hela border right down to Kopi where we had just under 3000 people working in our various facilities and camps.
“We had that down to 350 or so but now we have brought that up to 650 and maybe a few more today.”