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Reuters are reporting that ExxonMobil Corp announced on 5 March that it would take about eight weeks to restore production at the Papua New Guinea LNG project. following a powerful earthquake that hit the country’s energy-rich interior.
The 7.5 magnitude quake on 26 February triggered landslides and flattened buildings. killing at least 31 people. and has affected the regional LNG market. The South Pacific nation has declared a state of emergency.
Exxon said in a statement on 5 March that 300 non-essential personnel had been evacuated and work at the Hides gas conditioning plant in the highlands had turned to restoring camp and associated facilities.
Exxon is the operator and largest shareholder of the project that includes a 700 km gas pipeline that connects gas reserves in PNG’s jungle Southern Highlands to a coastal liquefaction plant. Oil Search Ltd and Santos are also project partners.
Oil Search said the Agogo production facility and the Moran field were the most affected by the quake. and major repairs will be required before production can restart. The timeframe to restart production through Agogo is still being reviewed.
Uncertainty around production from PNG has drained liquidity from Asia’s spot LNG markets with buyers and sellers taking a wait-and-see approach before committing to trade.
The PNG LNG project is considered one of the world’s best-performing LNG operations. Exxon said earlier this month that together with its partners. France’s Total SA and Australia’s Oil Search. it plans to almost double the facility’s export capacity to 16 million tpy.
