Pipeline test set for gas project

 By MALUM NALU

THE PNG LNG project will test-drive its pipeline next month  with a flow of gas from the oilfields in Kutubu, Southern Highlands, to the LNG processing plant outside Port Moresby.

This was revealed by Esso Highlands Ltd managing director Peter Graham on Tuesday.

He stressed that the gas, which would start flowing at the end of this month, would only be for purposes of testing the pipline and the capabilities of the plant.

The offshore pipeline between Omati River delta in Gulf, and Port Moresby, has been completed, while the onshore component runs from Omati to Kutubu, with the final uncompleted stretch being that between Kutubu and the Hides gas conditioning plant in Hela.

“The pipeline is completed all the way up to Kutubu because we have to put gas from the oilfields into the pipeline, late in August, to start commissioning and testing of the LNG plant site,” Graham said.

“We’re not making LNG.

“This will fire up the turbines that will produce power at the LNG plant site.

“It will be gas-fired.

“We need some gas to test the turbines.

“The pipeline is connected to Kutubu, and is connected up, so we can take gas from the oil fields and put it in the pipeline.”

Graham said the overall project was progressing very well, and on track “for first cargo to go out in 2014”, but could not provide actual dates.

“There are a lot of things, the bits and pieces of the project, given its complexity,” he said.

“It’s something that we prefer to keep in-house at time.”

Initial supply for the PNG LNG project, which will have its first exports next year, will come from four major well pads (drills) in the Hides area of Hela.

These are Well Pad B which had two wells, Well Pad C, Well Pad D, and Well Pad G, which are all in the vicinity of the Hides gas conditioning plant.

The feeder lines are 22-inch pipes that comes from the well pads to the Hides gas conditioning plant, and will import gas, condensate, water, and impurities.