Papua New Guinea: 3 articles on the pipeline project in The National, Wednesday
AGL boss confident of Queensland pipeline project
The National, October 21
SYDNEY: Gas distributor and retailer AGL said yesterday it was more than 70 per cent confident the gas pipeline from Queensland to Papua New Guinea would proceed.
"I'm over 70 per cent confident that this project will happen. Right from the Prime Minister down to the Premier of Queensland they are very keen to see this will happen," managing director Len Bleasel told journalists after the company's annual general meeting. "It means a lot of jobs ... so it's important for Australia," Mr Bleasel said.
He said AGL was confident it had the technology to build the pipeline. "There's no difficulty for AGL to be able to that, it's not a difficult pipeline to build," Mr Bleasel said.
"But we will not start spending real money on that until there are sufficient customers of a large enough size to underwrite the economics of it," he said. For the project to proceed the consortium needed contracts for the supply of 60 to 100 petajoules of gas a year.
He said Comalco has signed a memorandum of understanding with AGL for just under 30 petajoules and a heads of agreement has been drawn up with a power station. "It almost takes you over the line those two, but there would need to be for my comfort level others as well as that," Mr Bleasel said. However, a company spokesman emphasised that "nothing was firm".
AGL/Petronas are 50/50 joint venture partners in the construction, operatorship and ownership of the A$1.5 billion (K2.1 billion), 2,100 kilometre Australia stretch of the PNG to Queensland pipeline
Over the estimated 30-year life of the project, the pipeline will bring natural gas from Southern Highlands to industrial markets in Townsville and Gladstone.
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Council opposes Southern Highlands and Gulf gas proposal
The National, October 21. By KEVIN PAMBA
PORT MORESBY: The Business Council of PNG wants the Gas Act proposed by the Southern Highlands and Gulf Oil and Gas Task Force rejected. The proposed Act threatens investors and is not in the long-term interest of the country, council president Mel Togolo said.
Mr Togolo said the business community felt it was important that the amendments to the existing Petroleum Act be passed by Parliament next month. "The existing legislation and the proposed amendments are sufficient to cover future gas developments and provide an appropriate framework that allows for benefits to be mutually shared by all stakeholders," said Mr Togolo.
"The suggestion to raise royalty levels, increase participation and to effect free carry of the equity will only result in the cancellation of gas developments and force investors to look outside PNG for opportunities."
The council said the PNG gas project was at a crucial stage of its evolution and needed to secure bankable supply agreements with customers in Queensland within the next few weeks. This would be assisted by the signing of the Pipeline Development Agreement on Oct 14 between the Chevron led project proponents and AGL/Petronas that consequently released tariffs and access principles, Mr Togolo said.
He said customers however would be reluctant to make commitments if they felt that there was no stable and appropriate legislative regime in PNG. Said Mr Togolo: "It is important that the proposed amendments are passed in the November sitting of Parliament if PNG wants to grab the window of opportunity available to it for the gas project. "Further delay will likely result in the loss of customers to competitors and the failure of the project."
Contrary to assertions by the SHPG Oil and Gas Task Force, Mr Togolo said "the PNG gas project requires that the raw gas be treated in a marine processing facility to extract, fractionate and refrigerate LPG prior to distribution and sale to both domestic and export markets".
"This will provide direct benefits to regional economies and form the basis for future downstream processing," he said. He said the gas project would provide revenue to the economy and jobs for people.
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Chevron expert to arrive in PNG
The National, October 21
PORT MORESBY: A petroleum industry expert from Chevron headquarters in San Francisco, USA is scheduled to address the PNG media at the Press Club here on Thursday afternoon. Dr Nuhum Schnidermann who is expected to arrive in the country this afternoon will make a presentation on 'Global Oil and Gas Distribution', a tentative itinerary from Chevron Niugini says.
In the morning Dr Schnidermann who is arriving at the invitation of Chevron Niugini, is scheduled to meet Petroleum and Energy Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu and department secretary, Joseph Gabut.
That will be followed by a courtesy call on Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru and his Gulf counterpart Riddler Kimave. Dr Schnidermann is then expected to have lunch with the Society of Petroleum Engineers. In the evening he is expected to have a dinner meeting with the World Petroleum Congress.
On Friday morning, Dr Schnidermann is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Bill Skate, his deputy and other ministers at Parliament House. He will then take part in a luncheon/presentation with departmental heads organised by Telikom managing director Evoa Lalatute at the Islander Travelodge.
"Dr Schnidermann is a well known expert in the petroleum industry and works for Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc. He works out of Chevron headquarters in San Francisco," Chevron Niugini said.
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