Green Light for Papua LNG JV

Canadian oil and gas company High Arctic Energy Services said that  the Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has validated the Papua LNG Gas Agreement.

According to a statement, the announced validation by the Petroleum Minister includes new good faith concessions offered by the operator for the Papua LNG joint venture.  The concessions include preparing a detailed National Content Plan, third party pipeline access, possible state participation in pipeline ownership as well as LNG transport tankers.

Mike Maguire, President -International, said “We are pleased to advise that our major subcontracts are with PNG companies and that more than 70% of our PNG workforce is now comprised of PNG citizens including several managerial and supervisory roles."

Mike added: "We have been operating a Well Control School and mentoring program in PNG for nearly two years which has been instrumental in developing the skills of our local technical workforce, opening customer opportunities underpinned by a deep understanding of drilling needed in this frontier and challenging drilling landscape.  We are well positioned to contribute to local content plans for petroleum activity in PNG.”

With the Government having cleared implementation of the Papua LNG Gas Project “to proceed full steam ahead”, High Arctic anticipates an announcement soon on the PNG LNG expansion project announced by joint venture partners in 2018 to coincide and cohabitate with the Papua LNG processing facilities at the site of the existing two train PNG LNG gas plant.

J. Cameron Bailey, High Arctic’s CEO stated: “High Arctic’s extensive PNG experience, strong local content, technical and logistics capability combined with Tier-1 drilling and well site services assets places us in an excellent position to  contribute to both the Papua LNG Project and PNG LNG expansion as well as the growing backlog of PNG onshore exploration licence commitments which have been deferred over the past 4 years.”