LNG

Australia LNG operator Santos with stakes in three Asia-Pacific liquefaction and export plants has issued a statement about speculation on the sale of shares in the company by ENN Group of China that had previously held a strategic stake and board representation.

Energy World Corp., the owner and developer of LNG import terminals, liquefaction facilities and power plants in Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia, reported lower fourth-quarter net income after disposing of Indonesian assets.

Dec 13 (LNGJ) - Australian LNG plant operator Santos has seen its shares debut on the Papua New Guinea National Stock Exchange (PNGX) as one of the biggest oil and gas stocks in the Asia-Pacific region after the completion of the takeover of PNG-based Oil Search.

   Santos, based in Adelaide, noted that it had a history of oil and gas activities in the Oceania nation having commenced exploration in PNG in 1987 and production from the SE Gobe field in 1998. Now Santos has emerged as the biggest shareholder in the PNG LNG plant, operated by ExxonMobil, with the combined Santos-Oil Search stakes.

Renergen, the emerging South African natural gas and helium company with liquefied natural gas and liquefied helium production plans as part of the Virginia Gas project in the Free State, has announced very positive laboratory results on commercial helium concentrations, boosting its share price.

Oil Search, the oil and gas company with LNG and oil stakes in Papua New Guinea and oil interests in Alaska, said momentum was gathering in 2021 for progress on the Papua LNG expansion project as Oil Search also planned to commercialise its world-class resources and leverage the oil price upside.

The company outlined its hopes and plans for 2021 and beyond as its earnings report showed a net loss for 2020 and lower revenues.

Oil Search reported a full-year net loss of US$320.7 million compared with a profit of US$312.4M in the previous year.

The PNG-based company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange reported a 32 percent drop in revenues to US$1.07 billion versus US$1.58Bln in 2019.

“The financial results reflect significantly lower realised hydrocarbon prices in 2020 compared to 2019,” said Oil Search.

The 2020 loss included a post-tax impairment charge of US$260.2 million that had been recognised in the interim financial results.

“We have worked constructively with our PNG stakeholders which culminated in signing the Fiscal Stability Agreement for the Papua LNG project with the Independent State of Papua New Guinea earlier this month,” said Oil Search.

“In addition, the Papua LNG joint venture has been offered a second five-year extension of its Petroleum Retention Licence (PRL 15), to progress the project to the final investment decision (FID),” explained the company.

“This is a clear demonstration of the increasing alignment between the PNG Government and the Papua LNG joint venture,” stated Oil Search.

In the company’s view, the current position of the LNG expansion plan means that the Papua LNG Operator, French major Total, was targeting entering the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase in 2022.

“We are excited for the opportunities and benefits the project will bring to all stakeholders, including the people of PNG, and the Papua LNG project development schedule is targeting the delivery of LNG volumes into the market window when additional supply is forecast to be required,” explained Oil Search.

In Alaska, the Pikka project has already entered the FEED phase of development.

“Our Alaska asset delivered further exploration success and a material resource upgrade in 2020, contributing to a 94 percent increase to the 2C contingent resource base since acquisition,” explained Oil Search.

“We are aligned with our working interest partner on the phased development concept for the Pikka project and were pleased to announce that the joint venture has approved FEED entry,” added Oil Search.

The company said the project partners were targeting first oil production for Pikka Phase 1 in 2025 at 80,000 barrels per day from a single well-pad.

Oil Search said that in 2020, the partners had redesigned the development plan to halve the initial development costs for Pikka and lower the breakeven cost of supply to under US$40 per barrel, inclusive of a 10 percent return.

“Oil Search emerged from 2020 stronger and more resilient as a result of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, demand collapse and oil price downturn,” said Managing Director Keiran Wulff.

“Despite the material challenges, Oil Search achieved three important records for the year,” he added.

“The first is the strongest safety performance in PNG since becoming operator of the PNG oil fields in 2003. The second is the strongest production reliability from our operations in PNG since the 2018 earthquake and, lastly, the delivery of record annual production from the PNG LNG project,” stated Wulff.

The Papua New Guinea LNG expansion proposal to more than double current output could proceed with the single Papua Gas Agreement signed with the Government and consist of two new processing Trains instead of three Trains.

Oil Search, the Papua New Guinea energy company, said the PNG liquefied natural gas plant again posted high quarterly production, though suffered output disruption because of damage to the loading facility amid optimism for a final agreement before the end of 2019 on the LNG expansion project.

Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten, one of the leading figures in Papua New Guinea oil and gas development over the past 26 years and who had a key role in the nation’s emergence as an LNG exporter, has decided to hand over the company helm to a successor.