Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Canada’s INTEROIL brushes asides doubts over PNG gas reserves

Posted at 23:23 on 03 November, 2009 UTC

Canadian Oil Company, INTEROIL, has brushed aside doubts over the quantity of gas reserves at its Elk/Antelope field in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf province.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday that the company was facing a wave of scepticism over its plans to export liquefied natural gas or LNG from PNG.

The newspaper quoted Australian industry insiders and analysts who were doubtful that InterOil had sufficient gas reserves, claiming that the InterOil-led group had no certified reserves but it had detected gas flow rates at the Elk/Antelope field that InterOil had said were the strongest recorded in PNG.

It reported that InterOil aimed to build a second LNG plant in PNG alongside ExxonMobil’s 12.5 billion US dollar venture with Oil Search.

An InterOil spokesperson told the newspaper, The National that the company does not intend to build alongside Exxon.

The spokesperson says InterOil intends to build on Government-owned land on which it has a 99-year lease alongside its 100 per cent owned oil refinery.