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 PAPUA
NEW GUINEA
Australasia
Oil only began to be produced in Papua New Guinea in
1992 since the country was virtually unexplored up to the 1980s because
of difficulties in getting drilling equipment onto the mountainous
jungle-covered ridges that span the country.
Although there are small remote gas discoveries in the
foothills, the first major discovery was the gas/condensate Juha field,
made by a heliborne rig in 1983. In 1986 the Iagifu oil field was
discovered in the same area followed by further smaller fields which
jointly form the Kutubu complex of 36 producing wells.
 Production began in 1993 but it has been unsustainable
and no other major developments have proceeded. Various operators have
tried to find offshore extensions to the onshore reservoirs without
success.
In the south the Gulf of Papua has seen a number of wells
over the years but none have been commercially successful although two
small gas/condensate fields (Pasca and Uramu) were found in the 1970s
but never produced.
There is gas potential in the Gulf of Papua and onshore,
notably in the Hides field, awaiting development. Plans for a pipeline to
Australia were abandoned in 2007 but LNG/GTL plants to tap Kutubu gas
are being considered. In the north the country faces the Pacific Ocean where narrow
basins have no petroleum potential.
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