Baker Hughes described the contract for what should become PNG's first ever offshore oil and gas field development as "ground-breaking".

 

Pasca-A has a 93 million barrels of oil equivalent resource to be developed in the Gulf of Papua.

 

Baker Hughes will offer fullstream support, including drilling services for the appraisal and development phases of the project and an agreement to supply gas processing, compression, turbomachinery, controls subsea equipment and installation services

 

The Twinza agreement is an industry first and will cover all services and equipment during Phase I of the Pasca-A field development, including drilling services, wellheads and pressure control equipment for the fourth and final appraisal well. 

 

The appraisal well will be drilled in the September quarter and will be suspended as a future development well, before a final investment decision to proceed to development is expected in 2018. 

 

Post FID, Baker Hughes expects to provide an integrated gas processing solution from the wells through to point of export. 

 

The fullstream offering includes a wide range of capabilities in drilling services, subsea equipment, gas processing topsides, gas compression and turbomachinery as well as installation and commissioning services. 

 

As part of the package, Baker Hughes said it would also able to bring its expertise to offer a financial solution to enable Twinza to complete appraisal drilling and proceed to FID.

 

The deal leverages the fullstream capabilities of the newly combined GE and Baker Hughes that provides customers with a "wing to wing" partner in complex projects - from reservoir evaluation to production and end use, the firm said.

 

"The enhanced portfolio positions BHGE to create new sources of value by improving productivity and economics through integrated equipment and service offerings and meet customer needs through a fullstream lens," BHGE CEP Lorenzo Simonelli said.

 

"BHGE's competitive advantage is its ability to serve customers across the entire oil and gas value chain, providing cutting-edge technology and proven expertise to maximize customers' business profitability. 

 

"This project with Twinza is one of the first times we can truly show the value of combining our legacy strength into one unique fullstream offering."

 

Twinza CEO Huw Evans said having a single point of contact and a complete offering for a complex project was one of the key reasons why it had gone with Baker Hughes in its first ever PNG drilling campaign.

 

"With its fullstream capabilities, BHGE was able to propose a fully integrated services and equipment offering using a modular state of the art approach, high tech solutions and systems that ‘talk to each other' for optimisation," Evans said.

 

"This greatly synergises the execution of the project while reducing the integration risk if we had engaged several vendors for similar services and equipment."

 

Pasca-A is planned to produce condensate, natural gas liquids, LPG and gas, and it is hoped the project will help develop the development of relevant offshore skills and services in PNG, where exploration and been limited and sporadic to date, but where Oil Search is planning a significant offshore return towards the end of the decade.

 

Further, the LPG produced from Pasca-A will be available to reduce imports, and will offer a competitive alternative to imported diesel fuel for power generation.

 

Twinza holds 100% of the Pasca-A license and has submitted a development plan for the field that will produce the resource across two phases. Phase I consists of the initial production of NGLs, including condensate and LPG, with reinjection of dry gas ahead of Phase II. 

 

During Phase II, dry gas will be exported.

 

As Energy News reported in July, Twinza has secured the COSLSeeker jack-up rig for the drilling, which will follow on from earlier drilling at Pasca in the 1960s and 1980s, but ended with the Pasca-A3 blow-out

 

Twinza last year lodged environmental documents, ending four years of technical assessment involving 3D marine seismic, extensive site specific surveys and comprehensive technical, engineering and commercial evaluation.