Project Profile
Value: US$145 million
Location: Northwest of the SE Mananda field on the Mananda Ridge, Papua New Guinea
Reserves: 10 million barrels
Start-up Year: March 2006
The South East Mananda (SEM) Field is located to the south east of Mananda 4X and was discovered by SEM 1X well drilled by Niugini Gulf Oil in 1991. This well was followed by SEM 2X in 1994 and SEM 3, 4, and 5 wells in 2006. A development plan was sanctioned in 2004 and the fiscal and regulatory framework agreed with the PNG Government in early 2005. The SE Mananda development came on-stream in early 2006. The project involved construction of a 470m cable suspension bridge over the Hegigio Gorge to enable flowlines to tie back from SE Mananda to Agogo field facilities - the closest entry into the Kutubu production hub. The development of SE Mananda overcame complex geology, high-altitude drilling, and the laying of 16 km of parallel oil, gas-lift, and chemical pipelines in a remote area.
Petroleum Prospecting License (PPL) 219
Oil was discovered in the Toro reservoir by the Mananda 5 exploration well in PPL 219 in 2010. Based on seismic acquired in 2012 over the Mananda 5 discovery, a follow-up well, Mananda 6, located approximately 5 km south-east and updip of Mananda 5, was drilled in the first half of 2013. Mananda 6 discovered oil in both the Toro and Digimu reservoirs. Following this success, in August 2013, the Company submitted a development licence application covering the Mananda 5 and 6 oil discoveries, located north-west of the SE Mananda field on the Mananda Ridge, to the PNG Government. The development plan incorporates a tieback of Mananda 5 and Mananda 6 through a new flowline to the SE Mananda facilities, with primary oil processing to take place at the Agogo Processing Facility.
Mananda 7 (7ST1, 7ST2, 7ST3, and 7ST4) were drilled as deviated appraisal wells to the Mananda 6 discovery located in PPL219. A possible extension of the SE Mananda field from the PDL2 production license into adjoining Mananda 7 PPL219 is being considered. There are two large undrilled prospects in PPL219 called Mananda Attic and Mananda Footwall.
Operators:
Oil Search (PNG) Limited: Operator with 72.27% interest
Merlin Petroleum Company: 8.75% interest
Nippon Oil Exploration (Niugini) Pty Ltd: 20% interest