The area to the north and east of Indo-Pacific's PPL 192 and PPL 215 in Papua New Guinea is receiving increased attention with the recent signing of a gas supply deal which brings the proposed pipeline closer to reality. The $2.6 billion proposed gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea to Australia moved another step forward now that agreements have been reached on supply deals with Allgas, a subsidiary of Energex and Ergon Energy. The 20-year contracts are for the supply of up to 180 petajoules of gas per annum to customers in Queensland, Australia (conditional on approval by boards and shareholders). The gas will firstly be sourced from the Gobe and Kutubu Fields in the Southern Highlands—the Kutubu Field is approximately 50 miles from Indo-Pacific's PPL 215 operated permit, which is adjacent to Indo's PPL 192 permit, and so the joint ventures are eager to see the pipeline project become a reality.
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The Hides Field, which is further north, will be brought into play at a later stage. First gas is anticipated to flow in late 2002.
The 1,600-mile pipeline is to be built, owned, and operated by the Petronas-AGL consortium. Chevron Services Australia Pty Ltd is operator for the Papua New Guinea Gas Project. Other participants in the project are Chevron Nuigini Limited, Merlin Petroleum Company, Oil Search Limited, Orogen Minerals (Kutubu) Pty Ltd and Petroleum Resources Kutubu Pty Ltd.
Adjacent to Indo-Pacific's PPL 215, in PPL 193, Oil Search now proposes to reappraise its Kimu discovery which has the potential to flow at 50 million cf/d gas. Permits such as PPL 192 and PPL 215 in the Foreland area of PNG could also supply gas to Australia via the proposed pipeline, thus adding value to Indo-Pacific's Papua New Guinea holdings.
