PNG's first oil, gas road show set for September

Papua New Guinea's first petroleum licensing round for 15 prospecting blocks covering 12, 000 ha in the Gulf of Papua will be widely promoted in an international road show.

According to reports from The National online, a local news service, Petroleum Minister Moi Avei said Thursday the road show targeting reputable petroleum exploration and development companies around the world is scheduled for September in Perth, Singapore, Calgary, Houston and London.

The road show in Singapore would enable prospective bidders to purchase the data over the blocks as a pre-qualification for the bidding.

The opening of the promotion and release of the 15 blocks was announced by Moi Wednesday.

Many of the areas in the 15 blocks cover both shallow and deep water areas and include some adjoining onshore blocks. They are unexplored, having never been licensed and as such are true frontier areas with unknown potential.

Subsequent promotions will be undertaken by the Petroleum Department in collaboration with Furgo Multi Client Services ( Furgo) in the other locations.

Furgo, an internationally petroleum service company, had been undertaking PNG's largest ever seismic survey of the area covered by the 15 blocks.

The tender will close on April 13, 2007 and a decision will be made on successful bidders within eight weeks after the closing date.

"By packaging 15 blocks of prospective oil and gas areas, the licensing round will gain maximum exposure in the global gas and petroleum exploration market," said Moi.

He said the licensing round was also designed to take advantage of PNG's enhanced standing among exploration firms following the introduction of the attractive fiscal reforms in 2003 and the positive publicity associated with the PNG gas pipeline and the Government's domestic downstream processing policy.

"The PNG Government will be receiving and assessing any bids and setting up a transparent arrangement so that any bidders can be certain that their bids will be treated on merit," said Moi.

"It is PNG Government's intention to actively encourage and work together with new explorers who are interested in entering into one of the most prospective, but still under explored areas in PNG," said Moi.

Source: Xinhua