Development of the Gas Resource Assessment for the Papua New Guinea PNG LNG Project

Abstract

Abstract In December 2009, Esso Highlands Limited, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, and its partners made the decision to sanction the PNG LNG Project to develop resources in the Southern Highlands and Western Province of the Papuan fold belt. This project will develop four gas fields and blow down the gas caps of four currently producing oil fields. Resource assessments in the project area are only poorly characterized by the integration of 2D seismic, surface geology, well data, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and aeromagnetic data. Integration of dynamic data has been critical in the development of the resource assessment, with approximately 80% of total resource supported by production and pressure data. The Hides Field with five reservoir penetrations is the key asset for the PNG LNG Project, supplying approximately 2/3 of the total project resource. Integrated structural mapping and comprehensive reservoir analysis in conjunction with pressure data sourced from existing wells defines the Hides volumes. Full field dynamic simulation models have been used to test the match to production history and determine the range of in-place and recoverable volumes. Comprehensive sensitivity analysis confirmed the validity of small amounts of production data to constrain the range volumes and demonstrated the resource robustness. A similar approach was applied at the Kutubu Main Block Toro (MBT) Field which has extensive well penetrations, production history and pressure data. Results of this work significantly narrowed the range of uncertainty in the Hides and Kutubu MBT resource and built confidence in the total resource base for the PNG LNG Project.