Economy impact project to be developed in two phases costing 1.5 billion US dollars
The Pasca A Project spearheaded by Twinza Oil and Mineral Resources Development Corporation will be developed in two phases costing an estimated amount of $1.5 billion [US dollars].
Twinza chief executive chairman Stephen Quantrill said the development sequence will initially begin where the liquids will be brought into production then followed by LNG through a floating LNG facility.
“We've settled on an innovative and straightforward development plan, which has been optimised for safety, short time to first revenues, and low cost,” Quantrill said.
“Going to some detail on the infrastructure and development components, we'll be developing the project using three wells.
“We're in a water depth of just over 90 meters, and the crest of the reservoir is about 2,000 meters below mean sea level, and the gas water contact is another approximately 400 meters below that, about 2.4 kilometers below sea level.”
Quantrill said Twinza has been involved as a faithful and patient investor, starting the journey with Pasca in 2008 when they primarily prepared and made the first application for an exploration license.
The Australian oil company has spent over K400 million on the development to date which has allowed for a huge body of work performed by the internal team that includes drilling, seismic, and other specialized evaluations, which have been externally validated and appraised by Gaffney, Kline and Associates, most recently updated in early 2023.
The project is predicted to boost the economy with the first revenue to be generated in 2028.
Twinza and MRDC ventured into an agreement worth K45b mid this year allowing the investor and PNG government to manage its resources in a win-win relationship under this project.
“It is also recognized that developers need to make a return at the same time that the benefits flow to the people of PNG,” the executive chairman said.
“We are the government and people of PNG and Twinza have all taken and lost a lot of time on PASCA, but investment requires regulatory certainty.
“Regulatory approvals, including the gas agreement and the petroleum development license award are on our critical path as triggers for investment.
“That investment will be a significant contributor to FDI [Foreign Direct Investment], which was touched on in the IMF presentation earlier.”
Pasca is recognized by the PNG government as one of the large, big five new resources projects. Described as an is an ultimate low-hanging fruit project with straightforward offshore development in shallow water in the Gulf of Papua, about 90 kilometers offshore.
The project will be developed using standard facilities, including a jack-up platform with topsides and an FSO [Floating, Storage and Offloading] initially for the production of liquids, and then floating LNG for the gas development to follow soon after the first liquids.