Kumul Petroleum has awarded OilMin Holdings with a contract to carry out seismic work in two of its petroleum retention licences.
The contract signing marks the first that a national company has engaged in petroleum exploration in PNG.
“We have engaged OiMin to shoot a total of 79km of seismic, in six lines, over the Kimu and Barikewa fields in Gulf and Western provinces,” Kumul Petroleum managing director Wapu Sonk said.
“The purpose of this seismic work is to gather additional information on the petroleum resources already discovered in these two licences, to hopefully increase the confirmed volumes of oil and gas they contain, as well as improve further exploration targets.”
The contract has a value of K79 million ($30.3 million), with the cost split equally between the two licences.
“We are happy to engage OilMin, a national company who have many years experience in the management of remote field operations in the country and employ many Papua New Guineans,” Sonk said.
The proposed work is in remote areas and Sonk said it was likely that there will be 300–400 casual labourers engaged by OilMin during the program.
“OilMin, as principal contractor, will be responsible for all aspects of the program including seismic data collection, helicopter support, medical and security services on site,” Sonk said. “This seismic program will start this month and should be complete by March 2025.
“I am glad that Kumul Petroleum Holdings is now actively involved in upstream petroleum exploration and investigating the possibility of further commercialisation of PNG’s gas resources, in licences where these discoveries had previously been considered uneconomic stranded fields.”
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