Oil Search, Exxon nab Papua acreage

Oil Search and JV partner Exxon will each buy 40pc interests in two licences from a Chinese group.

Oil Search in July dropped a takeover bid for Papua New Guinea-focused InterOil Corp after its offer was trumped.

Exxon Mobil Corp and Oil Search Ltd have agreed to pick up deepwater exploration acreage in the Gulf of Papua from a company controlled by China’s Cnooc Ltd.

Exxon and Oil Search, partners in a gas-export venture in Papua New Guinea, have agreed to each buy 40 per cent interests in two exploration licences from Gini Energy, Oil Search said Monday. Gini will retain a 20 per cent interest in each license.

The licenses cover a combined 24,936 square kilometres in water depths of as much as 2,500 meters.

Peter Botten, managing director of Papua New Guinea-based Oil Search, said a comprehensive study of exploration opportunities in 2015 and 2016 had identified the offshore Gulf of Papua as a area of significant natural-gas potential.

Oil Search in July dropped a takeover bid for Papua New Guinea-focused InterOil Corp after its offer was trumped by a bid worth about $US2.5 billion by Exxon. US-listed InterOil holds six licenses to develop energy projects in Papua New Guinea that cover four million acres, and is part of a Total SA led venture which includes Oil Search that has plans to build a liquefied natural gas operation.

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