Oil and gas company Twinza has started negotiations with the Papua New Guinea authorities regarding the fiscal terms that will apply to the proposed development of the Pasca A gas-condensate offshore field.
The shallow water field in the Gulf of Papua was discovered in 1968 but was never developed, as, per Twinza, it at the time appeared any development solution for the gas field would not be straightforward or commercially attractive.
Twinza, on the other hand, thinks the relatively shallow water depth (93 meters) in the PPL 328 block, benign tropical metocean conditions, close proximity to landfall (95 kilometers), and rich hydrocarbon liquids yield of the gas make the Pasca A field an ideal candidate for development.
In September 2017 Twinza spudded the Pasca A4(AD-1) well with an objective to complete appraisal of the Pasca A field and suspend the well as a future development well for the first offshore field development in PNG.
Per the company, the well exceeded pre-drill expectations, proving that the field resource was more than sufficient to underpin economic development.
The most recent resource assessment was completed in April 2018 and classified recoverable reserves of 69.1 mmbbl condensate and LPG plus a recoverable gas resource of 326.7 bcf at the Pascoa A.
Commenting on the start of negotiations with the government Twinza's PNG Country Manager, Roppe Uyassi, who is leading the engagement for Twinza, said: "The Company is committed to working collaboratively with the Government to deliver an agreement that allows the Project to move forward toward development, whilst providing a higher State take than previous projects. Once the Pasca A Gas Agreement and the Petroleum Development License are in place, the project is well-positioned to enter the Front End Engineering and Design phase later this year.”
The Pascoa A development engineering is based on three wells: two production wells and a single injector. These wells are tied back to a minimal wellhead platform that is braced to an adjoining self-installing platform that hosts the processing and utility topsides.
Condensate and LPG extracted from the gas during Phase I is stored on floating storage and offloading vessel accessible from the platform via a retractable gangway, whilst the residual dry gas is reinjected into the reservoir.
For the second phase of development, a floating liquefaction storage and offloading (FLSO) vessel will be moored close to the central processing facility and the residual gas will be re-routed via a flowline to the FLSO. At this time injection well will be re-purposed as a production well simply by reversing the direction of flow in the well.
Hub for other fields
Twinza earlier this week said it was also looking forward to addressing non-fiscal opportunities, including domestic market commitment, third-party access to facilities, and national content.
"These matters are differentiated from land-based projects as the Pasca A field is planned to be the first offshore development in PNG," Twinza said.
Pasca A is being promoted as an infrastructure ‘hub’, whereby existing and new discoveries can utilize spare capacity at the installed facilities to lower their costs, Twinza said.
Several offshore fields, including Pandora, can be regarded as commercial if they are aggregated through Pasca infrastructure, Twinza said.
"Such aggregation of fields can provide a steady stream of investment, jobs, and liquefied petroleum gas for the domestic market.
Erick Kowa, Twinza’s Technical Lead in the discussions with the government, commented that “there is a real opportunity for the parties to set the Gulf of Papua up for success through creating a framework for the co-operative development of currently stranded fields. Such an arrangement can provide fiscal certainty for industry players to invest in development and exploration with the confidence that resources can be commercialized”.