Twinza gets OK for Pasca project in PNG

Australian independent Twinza Oil has been given the green light by the Papua New Guinea government to develop the Pasca gas condensate project.

PNG Minister for Petroleum Kerenga Kua said that the signing of the ministerial determination allows Twinza to progress Pasca in the Gulf of Papua, which is the nation’s first offshore gas field development.

“The project, though small in relative terms to PNG LNG and Papua LNG, has the highest combined flow rate of gas and condensate ever recorded in offshore PNG and is likely to underpin the commercialisation of other offshore gas fields,” said Kua.

Twinza is proposing a two-stage development. Phase one will exploit the condensate with the gas being reinjected and the second phase will see the gas produced and commercialised.

The operator has already approached the market for a floating storage and offloading vessel for the Pasca A project. The intent is to bridge-link the FSO to a production platform, with accommodation facilities being provided on the floater.

The wellhead production platform will be able to handle 125 million cubic feet per day of gas, Upstream reported on 22 November 2018.

Australia-listed Global Energy Ventures (GEV) has a heads of agreement with Twinza for the duo to carry out a pre-feasibility study to evaluate a commercialisation plan for gas from the Pasca A field as marine CNG.

Kua said that his approach as minister is to have condensate and gas produced at the same time or within a close time interval (within three years) so "that we as a state do not lose value in the residual gas after extraction of the condensate".

“As required by legislation, a development forum will still need to take place but the site is beyond the fishing grounds of the Gulf people so, after the legal checks and social mapping the State Solicitor’s Office, has deemed that there are no landowners,” he added.

“However, the signing of this ministerial determination now allows the benefits sharing process between the Gulf Provincial Government and the National Government to move ahead.”