Potential in ‘methane’

KUMUL Petroleum managing director Wapu Sonk says the country has massive potential to develop unconventional hydrocarbons.
He explained yesterday the difference between conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons.
He said conventional hydrocarbons were found in sandstone, which was common in PNG.
“Sandstone is like the sand you find at Ela Beach (in Port Moresby). It’s sand which is compressed over time and deposited a few kilometres below the surface.
“It’s very porous.
“And when you produce from those wells, you get high production rates and you don’t really have to do a lot of work.”
Unconventional hydrocarbons, come from two sources – coal (methane) gas and shale gas.
“Those are very hard to produce. But with technology, we’ll be able to produce gas and oil from methane and shale,” he said.
“We have rocks in PNG, but we have to drill through them, as a cap to the conventional gas below it.
“With the legislation coming into force, the ministry is doing some investigations, some research on what the potential is.
“We have both coal and shale in PNG.
“We just need to do more work. People with the financial and technical capabilities should also work with us to understand and establish the resource potential in the country.”