10 to 20% rise this week?

There could be a 10 to 20% rise in OSH this week - providing the announcements are as good as the rumours suggest.





Major Customer For Gas In The Offing.

Papua New Guinea-Queensland pipeline project could get boost.

By YEHIURA HRIEHWAZI and JOHN DAU

THERE is increasing speculation that a major customer will be signed up for the PNG-Queensland gas project bringing the proposed pipeline project closer to reality.
ExxonMobil spokesperson Anna Shulze told The National from Melbourne last week that for the project to move into front-end engineering and design stage (FEED), they needed to sign up a minimum customer demand of between 100 to 150 petajoules of gas.
ExxonMobil is the project developer of the project along with a number of partners that include Oil Search Ltd. They have already signed up customers needing up to 80 petajoules of gas in Queensland and were working on more customers in the Northern Territory who if signed up would require a supply of between 50 to 90 petajoules. If these customers are signed up, it would make the pipeline project a definite goer.
Ms Shulz said ExxonMobil was still very much committed to the PNG-Qld pipeline project and the company was actively negotiating with potential customers and announcements on any agreements reached would be made at appropriate times.
Another major player in the gas industry told The National yesterday that "some good news" regarding the pipeline project was expected this week.
He said he was extremely confident of the pipeline project making some headway during the week.
When Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare returned from Japan and Australia last week where he held talks with Japanese investors and Australian 'movers and shakers', he predicted that more customers would be signed up before the end of the month.
Sat*rday is the last day of the month and Oil Search Ltd's annual general meeting will be held on Friday. It is widely believed the company would like some more "good news", apart from its record profits and production volumes and operatorship of all oilfields fields in PNG disclosed at the AGM.
Minister for Petroleum Sir Moi Avei also told Parliament on Friday that he expected the operators to conclude negotiations and sign up one or two more customers this week.
He did not name the company or companies likely to be signed up due to the commercial sensitivity of the industry and the Australian Stock Exchange.
When he last spoke to this newspaper from Tokyo about a week ago, he said he was extremely excited as "things were moving very fast" with the gas project. "We are ecstatic, things are moving very fast," he said from his Tokyo hotel room.
Responding to questions on the floor of Parliament on Friday from Sandaun Governor Carkos Yuni, Sir Moi said financiers of the PNG government's participation in the gas project was Itochu Corporation of Japan. Itochu representatives were expected to arrive in PNG to make a presentation of its financial package to the PNG government.
Itochu has also agreed to come is a joint venture partner with Mitsubishi Chemicals to undertake a feasibility study of a methanol plant either in Kopi, Kerema or Napa Napa outside Port Moresby.
Sir Moi also foreshadowed in Parliament the government's plans for a north-bound gas pipeline that would supply gas for power generation in the Frieda Copper project, Ramu Nickel project and for a processing facility in Wewak for exports to Asian markets.




http://www.thenational.com.pg/0526/nation4.htm