PNG PM COMMENDS OIL SEARCH OFFSHORE DRILLING

PNG PM happy with Off Drilling . EMTV Photo

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has commended Oil Search Limited’s offshore drilling campaign in the Gulf Province.

He made the remark after touring the company’s offshore drilling rig last week.

The Gulf province has been ranked as one of the lowest performing provinces in PNG, with social indicators far from perfect, but that may about to change. Oil Search limited has discovered offshore oil and gas deposits in the area.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, accompanied by Gulf Governor Havila Kavo, saw first-hand current drilling operations at the KiduKidu well site.

The Stena Clyde drilling program is the first offshore drilling program in PNG for 12 years and is being carried out at a cost of more than 210 million US dollars.

The rig has been in operation for six months, starting with the drilling of the Flinders 1 and Hagana 1 wells, both in the petroleum prospecting licence 244 and Kidukidu, which is in PPL 385.

Mr O’Neill said the tour was very informative, and it was his first time to visit an offshore drilling rig.

He said it was important to get an appreciation of the challenges faced by companies like Oil Search.

“Oil Search is an important stakeholder in Papua New Guinea and an important player in the oiling industry in our country…so I think it is fair that we continue to support the company,” he said.

He was also impressed with the number of Papua New Guineans working on the rig site.

“It was good to see ten Papua New Guineans living and working on the offshore drill site,” said O’Neill.

Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten said the company wanted the Prime minister to see the semisubmersible rig for himself. One built using the latest state of the art technology.

“Kidukidu is reaching a critical stage now where over the next couple of days we’ll be carrying out a number of tests and logging, and evaluation of what we found,” he said.

Mr Botten said Oil Search has drilled three wells out there following a very comprehensive 3D seismic programme that took place in 2010 and 2011. Of the three wells, two discoveries have been made.

EMTV