Project Profile
Value: Undisclosed
Location: the Southern Highlands Province, 80 kilometres northwest of Kutubu, Papua New Guinea
Reserves: 48.8 bscf and 1.1 million barrels of condensate
Start-up Year: 1Q 2012
The Hides gas field is located in the Southern Highlands Province, 80 kilometres northwest of Kutubu in Papua New Guinea in Permit PDL 1. Oil Search owns 16.6% of PDL-1 with ExxonMobil serving as the operator with 83.4% interest. The Hides gas field was discovered in 1987. It is a large anticlinal structure, approximately 30 kilometres long and five kilometres wide. Four wells have been drilled on the structure to date. As at 31 December 2012, the reserves attributable to the Hides GTE Project (Oil Search - 100%) were 48.8 bscf and 1.1 million barrels of condensate
Gas production commenced in 1991 with the development of the Hides Gas to Electricity Project (GTE). The Hides GTE project consists of a pipeline (PL 1) connecting the Hides-1 and Hides-2 wells to a small gas conditioning plant at the Hides Production Facility (HPF) located in the Tagari River valley. Sales gas is then used by the Porgera Joint Venture to generate electricity in an adjacent facility. The electricity is transmitted to the Porgera Gold Mine by overhead wire. Condensate produced along with the gas is distilled into naphtha and diesel which is sold into local markets and used as back-up fuel for the power station. Oil Search owns 100% of the GTE project and is Operator. The gas is sold under a long-term gas supply contract, which was revised in the first half of 2012.
Operators:
ExxonMobil: Operator with 83.4% interest
Oil Search Limited: 16.6% interest