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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 23:10 GMT | more >>

Rift floats Flex LNG plan in PNG



By Upstream staff 

UK explorer Rift Oil is set to work together with Flex LNG to develop Rift’s potential gas reserves onshore Papua New Guinea via an offshore floating liquefaction concept after both companies signed a heads of agreement.

The venture is also open to processing third-party gas reserves that are commercially stranded and that can be tied into the project.

Rift currently operates licences PPL 235 and PPL 261 in western PNG. The outfit recently made the Douglas gas discovery in PPL 235 and is now drilling the Puk Puk prospect over the same block.

Flex’s liquefied natural gas technology, which uses a proven nitrogen expander liquefaction cycle system, allows an LNG producer to source gas from numerous potential offshore sites where natural gas is either stranded or being flared.

Flex LNG has signed four ship building contracts with Samsung Heavy Industries for liquefied natural gas producer hulls utilising the SPB LNG containment system. The concept offers the LNG industry the unique possibility of accessing currently uncommitted gas reserves for LNG production from 2011 onwards, Rift said in a statement.

Rift and Flex said they will develop a floating liquefaction project off PNG that will use potential gas reserves, if sufficient reserves are established, and one of Flex’s floating liquefaction units on order.

“The surge in LNG prices is rewriting the economic alternatives for Rift by enabling us access to international pricing,” Rift’s chairman Ian Gowrie-Smith said today.

He added that Rift remains fully committed to developing the opportunity to supply Rio Tinto Alcan in Australia with natural gas over the next 20 years under an existing memorandum of understanding.

By selecting a floating liquefaction option, Rift could be producing LNG several years earlier than a traditional onshore project, Flex’s chief executive Philip Fjeld said.

Norwegian-owned Flex, yesterday signed a heads of agreement with Mitsubishi and Peak Petroleum to jointly develop and market the world’s first floating liquefaction project off Nigeria.


Wednesday, 11 June, 2008, 07:24 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 11 June, 2008, 07:27 GMT

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