is it talisman, exxon, or interoil ?

Article released today:

Talisman Eyes Third LNG Scheme in Papua New Guinea
(Copyright © 2009 Energy Intelligence Group, Inc.)
International Oil Daily Monday, September 14, 2009
Click here to close window after printing

Canadian independent Talisman Energy is advancing plans for an LNG liquefaction project in Papua New Guinea (PNG) following its acquisition of UK minnow Rift Oil earlier this year.

Talisman spent £114.8 million ($192 million) buying Rift, which is listed on London's junior Alternative Investment Market. The purchase enabled it to swoop in on Rift's only assets -- two onshore blocks, PPL 235 and PPL 261, in PNG, where the Canadian firm also has acreage (IOD Jun.17,p4). The deal was wrapped up last month.

Former Rift Chief Executive Jenni Lean, who is now Talisman's chief representative in PNG, told a conference in Darwin Friday that Talisman's goal is to combine Rift's blocks in the PNG Foreland -- an onshore area characterized by lowland forests and swamps with few roads and a very sparse population -- with Talisman's two blocks off Western Province in southwestern PNG bordering Indonesia's Papua province.

That would enable it to create a "noncompeting" project with the other two LNG schemes planned in PNG -- one led by Exxon Mobil and the other by Houston- and PNG-based InterOil, she said.

Speaking to International Oil Daily on the conference sidelines, Lean said Talisman is well placed to aggregate up to 5 trillion cubic feet of proved, probable and possible gas resources in PNG. It is in talks with firms over acquiring more acreage, particularly stranded gas fields in adjacent blocks.

The combination of Talisman's two blocks, which include the Pandora gas field, and Rift's acreage should provide over 1 Tcf of resources, Lean said, but she stressed more work needs to be done to pin down reserve numbers more precisely.

The initial plan would be to build a 2 million-3 million ton per year LNG project. Upstream and midstream costs would total C$1.8 billion (US$1.67 billion). Of that, C$997 million would be the initial budget for drilling four development wells and one injector at Pandora, as well as pipeline costs; a further C$850 million would be spent drilling seven wells and associated tie-ins at Rift's two blocks, plus other associated midstream costs.

There are two possible sites for the LNG plant -- one onshore at Daru Island in the Western Province and the other offshore in the Gulf of Papua further north. Capital expenditure on the offshore plant is put at C$1.16 billion. WorleyParsons is now completing an initial cost evaluation for the plan, Lean said.

Last November, Talisman told International Oil Daily it was eyeing a floating LNG option, but Lean said the firm is now keeping all development options open, including a gas-to-liquids facility.

"The next steps are to complete a detailed cost analysis of the offshore and pipeline options and to compare that with the onshore option," Lean said, "and also to compare options for the use of gas, not just LNG

cheers!