Advertorial
Elevala Ketu gas condensate stripping project development
Southern Highlands, Hela, Gulf, Western and Central provinces. The plant started construction in 2019 and was commissioned in 2020 at a total cost of K450 million. The plant takes gas from the PNG LNG plant through a 4.5km six-inch steel pipeline to feed the three Titan Solar turbines. Dirio Gas and Power is an independent power producer (IPP), 100% PNG owned. 10.0 IN-HOUSE PROJECTS The department has undertaken a number of major in-house projects as part of meeting its key results areas (KRAs) since 2020 as briefly discussed below. Despite COVID-19, which to a greater extent delayed the progress of many of the department’s activities, we managed to tick off some of our KPIs towards the end of 2022 and continue to do so with there still being a number of outstanding tasks to achieve our targeted KRAs in 2023 and beyond. 10.1. Office Space : The department relocated its office to the newly constructed six-floor Grand Columbia Building at Waigani at the end of 2021. The lease agreement was signed in mid-November 2020 on a lease buy-back arrangement. The complex housed the petroleum division plus the ministry of the Department of Petroleum and Energy. 10.2. Corporate Plan: The department drafted its first corporate plan in 2020 to align its operations under the medium term development strategic plan 2010-2030 and Vision 2050. Further reviews of the draft continued towards the end of 2020. The final draft was completed and sent to DPM on 18 December 2020 for official recognition before being formally launched before the end of 2023
Source : Horizon Oil
The additional blocks added to the original APDL 12 application are expected to result in significant changes to the initial project scope and development concept as initially proposed by Horizon Oil, the former operator of PRL 21. At the outset, the amended application has completely lacked supporting technical, financial and environmental documents and information for the additional two licences added to give confidence to the DPE in the ability of the new operator to comply with all the requirements under the act. The amended application lacked merit and did not fully comply with the requirements under the Oil and Gas Act for the application to be considered on its own merit. Hence, the Minister made his intention known to refuse to grant the petroleum development licence on 3 February 2022, based on the recommendation from the Petroleum Advisory Board (PAB). The matter is now before the court as the new operator Arran Energy has taken the decision of the Minister to court for judicial review (JR). The department will continue to enforce and guide the new operator to comply with all the regulatory compliance requirements under the act, before a petroleum development licence can be granted. The new joint venture (JV) partners in the Elevala Ketu gas development with Arran Energy as the operator are: Arran Energy (Foreland) Pty Ltd (82.64%); Kina Petroleum Limited (16.10%); Kumul Gas Niugini B.V (0.77%); and Mega Fortune International Ltd (0.48%) 9.0 GAS-TO-POWER PROJECTS Utilising domestic market obligation (DMO) gas from the PNG LNG project, two gas-to-power projects have been constructed and commissioned by two local companies – NiuPower and Dirio Power – since 2019 to provide reliable and affordable power supply to the country, supplying a total of 106 megawatts of power to the Port Moresby grid in line with the government’s target goal of providing 70% electricity access by 2030 and 100% access by 2050. To enable gas off-take, the department has granted two pipeline licences to NiuPower and Dirio Gas Power, taking gas from the PNG LNG plant, feeding a total of nine gas turbines for power generation. 9.1. NiuPower Project: The NiuPower Station is 20km northwest of Port Moresby at Caution Bay on the south coast of PNG’s Central Province. It is a 58.7 megawatt gas-fired power plant supplying the Port Moresby grid from six internal combustion gas engines (gas turbines). The power plant is a 50/50 joint venture between Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd (KPHL) and Oil Search Ltd. The plant started construction in 2017 and was commissioned in 2019 at a total cost of US$100 million. The plant takes gas from the PNG LNG plant through a 4.4km six-inch steel pipeline to feed the six internal combustion gas turbine engines. NiuPower is an independent power producer (IPP), 100% PNG owned. 9.2. Dirio Power Project: The Dirio Gas and Power Project is within the same location as the NiuPower Gas Power Station, 20km northwest of Port Moresby at Caution Bay. It is a 48 megawatt gas- fired power plant supplying the Port Moresby power grid from three 15 MW Titan Solar turbines, producing a total of 45 MW. The power plant is owned by landowners and provincial governments from
after official notices are sent to key government agencies especially DPM, PM's Office, Treasury and Finance. This work is at an advanced stage. 10.3. Fees and Charges: The review on the existing fees and charges has given the DPE
NiuPower’s Gas Power Plant, Port Moresby
Source : Internet
the opportunity to take into consideration new projects such as LNG developments, long distance pipelines and other areas that were not adequately covered under the existing fees and charges structure. Section 71A of the Public Finances (Management) Act, 1995 (as amended 2016) provides the legal authority for the DPE to charge statutory fees and charges on a range of matters relating to the activities and operations of the petroleum industry in Papua New Guinea. The review exercise was carried out in line with the Marape- Ross government’s overall drive to maximise non-tax revenue to the state. This is outlined in the government’s Medium-Term Revenue Strategy (MTRS), 2018-2021. A number of government departments and agencies have been taking part in this activity, organised and coordinated by the Department of Finance. The fees and charges are subject to annual review according to CPI increases but for the Department of Petroleum, they were long overdue since 1978. Hence, the increases were calculated, taken into consideration CPI increases since 1978. As the Department of Petroleum and Energy (“the regulator”) operates on public funding from the government, the objective of the revised fees and charges is to ensure adequate funding is made available to meet the administrative and regulatory functions of the department, through increased budget support to the department. Dirio’s Gas Power Plant, Port Moresby Source : Internet
To further improve and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the regulatory functions of the department, it is moving into a new petroleum
VOLUME 34 2023
37
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog