PNG: InterOil Net Profit Climbs

InterOil said today its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 was $9.4 million compared with a net profit of $0.7 million for the same period in 2011, an improvement of $8.7 million.

First Quarter 2012 Highlights and Recent Developments

• As of April 6, 2012, InterOil drilled the Triceratops-2 well in Papua New Guinea through the entire carbonate interval to a total depth of 7,336 feet (2,236 meters). The acquisition of wireline logs was completed on April 14, 2012 and the testing program is ongoing. The logs and DST pressure data indicate two separate, carbonate reservoir intervals with separate pressure systems and potentially separate or stacked hydrocarbon pay. The upper reservoir interval contains gas and condensate which preliminary pressure data indicates is in communication with the gas and condensate tested 3.8 kilometers away in the Bwata-1 well. The deeper zone lies below a 264 feet (80.5 meter) thick marl and argillaceous limestone interval, likely an intra-formational seal, where an independent formation evaluation indicates potential liquid hydrocarbons. The presence of movable hydrocarbons in the lower reservoir interval, at this stage, has not been confirmed with testing. However, a small volume of light oil of condensate composition was recovered.
• Net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 was $9.4 million. The operating segments of Corporate, Midstream Refining and Downstream collectively derived a net profit for the quarter of $28.6 million, while the investments in the development segments of Upstream and Midstream Liquefaction resulted in a net loss of $19.2 million.
• Subsequent to quarter end, InterOil signed a binding Heads of Agreement with Pacific Rubiales Energy  to be able to earn a 10.0% net (12.9% gross) participating interest in PPL237, which includes the Triceratops structure. The transaction contemplates staged initial cash payments totaling $116.0 million, an additional carry of 25% of the costs of an agreed exploration work program, and a final resource payment. PRE has paid the initial $20 million of the staged cash payments. Definitive agreements are in the process of being finalized.

InterOil’s Chief Executive Officer Phil Mulacek commented, “We are pleased to report another successful quarter of profitability from our operating business. Additionally, we are excited to welcome Pacific Rubiales as partners in PPL 237, the company brings valuable expertise to our team.”

In regards to the ongoing LNG partnering process, Mr. Mulacek stated “We are continuing to work with our advisors to obtain a strategic partner. We have received conforming and non-conforming bids for the LNG partnering and sell down of an interest in the Elk and Antelope fields that we believe would be accretive to shareholders. We are now set to engage with a shortlist of significant LNG industry participants with a view to concluding discussions and entering into an agreement this quarter. The end result of the partnering process is envisioned to fully satisfy all the terms of the 2009 LNG Project Agreement.”

As to the Triceratops-2 well, Mr. Mulacek noted that, “Despite mechanical difficulties in obtaining a successful drill stem test from zones of interest in the lower hydrocarbon interval, we are very encouraged by gas and liquid hydrocarbon testing ongoing at the Triceratops-2 well. A plan is in place to evaluate the entire drilled interval and would likely include casing the entire interval and perforating zones of interest to obtain definitive results. Our prospect inventory is maturing and we anticipate that it will support our goal of a multi-year, multi-well exploration program. We believe that these achievements, combined with our strong balance sheet, support our continued growth and operational success.”

Source

Related articles

• InterOil Net Profit Climbs (USA) (mb50.wordpress.com)

InterOil Net Profit Climbs (USA)

InterOil Corporation today said that its 2011 net profit was $17.7 million compared with a net loss of $44.5 million for the same period in 2010.

Fourth Quarter 2011 Highlights and Recent Developments

• During the fourth quarter, InterOil completed two Heads of Agreements (HOA) on long-term LNG supply for its proposed LNG project in Papua New Guinea, bringing the total of its three HOAs to 3.3 to 3.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). While not binding, these HOAs set out the basis upon which the parties intend to negotiate and document terms for the purchase and sale of LNG.

• Exploration activities continued across our three Petroleum Prospecting Licenses (PPLs) in PNG during the quarter. Seven dip lines were acquired to further delineate the Wahoo and Mako prospects and identify potential drilling locations. Processing and interpretation of the data is ongoing. A third phase of seismic data acquisition, which consists of two dip orientated lines totaling 21 kilometers in length over the Tuna prospect and Wahoo/Mako prospects, commenced on December 22, 2011. Line preparation is currently in progress.

• Net profit for the year ended December 31, 2011 was $17.7 million compared with a net loss of $44.5 million for the same period in 2010, an improvement of $62.2 million. The operating segments of Corporate, Midstream Refining and Downstream collectively returned a net profit for the year of $82.3 million. The development segments of Upstream and Midstream Liquefaction yielded a net loss of $64.6 million.

• Subsequent to the quarter end, on January 17th, 2012, InterOil announced that the Triceratops-2 delineation well had been spudded. The Triceratops-2 well is an appraisal well to test the presence of hydrocarbons and determine whether a potential reefal carbonate reservoir exists in the Triceratops field.

InterOil’s Chief Executive Officer Phil Mulacek commented, “We continue to work with our existing LNG development partners and the PNG government to advance our LNG project towards first production. Simultaneously, our advisors are managing the process of soliciting and evaluating proposals from potential strategic LNG partners. If a strategic partner is selected, we expect that such a partner would assist with accelerating the LNG project’s capacity growth. Our delineation drilling at Triceratops has the potential to add to our substantial resource estimate at Elk and Antelope, and provide back-up supply for increasing LNG capacity. Our prospect inventory is maturing and we anticipate that it will support our goal of a multi-year, multi-well exploration program. We believe that these achievements, combined with our strong balance sheet, support our continued growth and operational success.”

Related articles

• InterOil Spuds Triceratops-2 Well in Papua New Guinea (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Soros Makes Waves Again (fool.com)
• InterOil Is Inches From Finalizing $6 Billion LNG Project (dailyfinance.com)

Oil Search Plans Substantial Investment in PNG

Papua New Guinea-focused Oil Search plans to make substantial investments in 2012.

“The company will spend an estimated U$2.2 billion in-country, on PNG LNG Project related activities and on an extensive gas and oil exploration, appraisal and development programme,” Oil Search said in a statement Tuesday.

The exploration and appraisal work is aimed at finding more gas for a future expansion of the 6.6 million tonne per annum PNG LNG plant as well as proving up gas reserves for the Gulf Area LNG opportunity.
Oil Search sees Gulf Area LNG as a valuable long term growth opportunity as the company could potentially become a participant in two LNG projects or even an LNG project operator.

Source

Related articles

• InterOil and Gunvor ink LNG supply deal (mb50.wordpress.com)
• ExxonMobil Eyes North American LNG Exports (mb50.wordpress.com)
• USA: Cheniere Enters into Contract with Bechtel (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Gas majors eye off Oil Search drilling (news.theage.com.au)

InterOil Spuds Triceratops-2 Well in Papua New Guinea

InterOil Corporation announced that drilling has commenced on the Triceratops-2 appraisal well in Petroleum Prospecting License 237 in Papua New Guinea.

The plan is to drill the entire reservoir interval with a predicted total depth of the well of approximately 7,579 feet (2,310 meters). The well is expected to take in the order of 60 to 120 days to drill, log and test depending upon drilling conditions.

The Triceratops-2 well will test a previously identified gas field which was logged and tested during drilling of the Bwata-1 well in 1959, and the Triceratops-1 well in 2005. The Bwata-1 well tested flow rates of up to 28 million cubic feet of natural gas per day defining a 512 feet (156 metre) gas column.

Recently InterOil has completed over 128 kilometres of seismic acquisition re-evaluating the Triceratops gas field. The seismic data defines a larger structural closure than previously recognized. In addition, seismic facies character and geometries analogous to the Antelope reefal build up have been observed.

The Triceratops-2 well, located approximately 2.1 miles (3.5 kms) west of the Bwata-1 discovery well and 2.9 miles (4.7 kms) SW from Triceratops-1, is predicted to penetrate the top of the carbonate reservoir approximately 1,500 feet higher than the gas water contact established in the Bwata-1 well.

The Triceratops-2 primary objectives are to 1) confirm the presence of gas and condensate 2) test for the presence of reefal carbonate reservoir and 3) in the event of success, complete the well as a future production well.

“We are pleased to resume our exploration drilling activities with the drilling and delineation of the Triceratops gas field. Our exploration team has identified significant potential in this field which is proximate to our planned Gulf LNG Project,” said Mr. Phil Mulacek, Chief Executive Officer of InterOil.

Articles

• InterOil Second Quarter Profit Rises (USA)
• Transeuro Energy: Ukraine Drills Into High Pressure Gas
• LNG Energy Announces Interpretation of 27km of 2D Seismic Within PPL 319 in Papua New Guinea
• Santos: Spar-2 Appraisal Well Confirms Spar Field Upside (Australia)
• Sonde Resources Announces Test Results from Its Zarat North-1 Appraisal Well, Offshore Tunisia

Source

Related articles

• InterOil Seeks Strategic Partner for Papua New Guinea LNG Project (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Papua New Guinea’s InterOil Close to Finalizing $6 Billion LNG Project, Secures Preliminary Sales Deal with Chinese Firm (ibtimes.com)
• InterOil and Gunvor ink LNG supply deal (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Australia: UBS Says Woodside Faces LNG Delays (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Paupa New Guinea: FLEX Updates on Gulf LNG Project (mb50.wordpress.com)

InterOil and Gunvor ink LNG supply deal

InterOil and Pacific LNG have inked an Head of Agreement with Gunvor of Singapore for supply of one million tonnes of LNG per year from the Gulf LNG Project Papua New Guinea.

InterOil and Pacific LNG said that they were working to complete the negotiation and finalise a binding sale and purchases agreement with Gunvor by second quarter of 2012.

The Gulf LNG Project in Papua New Guinea comprises the Elk and Antelope gas fields and the planned liquefaction and associated facilities in the Gulf Province of PNG to be developed by Liquid Niugini Gas Ltd., InterOil and Pacific LNG’s joint-venture project company.

Source

Related articles

• InterOil and Gunvor Sign Heads of Agreement for LNG Supply (prnewswire.com)
• InterOil, Pacific LNG sign supply deal with Noble Clean Fuels (mb50.wordpress.com)
• InterOil Seeks Strategic Partner for Papua New Guinea LNG Project (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Movers & Shakers: Friday’s biggest gaining and declining stocks (marketwatch.com)
• InterOil and Noble Sign Heads of Agreement on LNG Sale (prnewswire.com)
• Australia: UBS Says Woodside Faces LNG Delays (mb50.wordpress.com)

Obama’s Uganda Gambit to serve Soros

Ed Lasky

Journalist Aaron Klein has an interesting take on Barack Obama‘s surprising decision to send troops into Uganda to battle a rebel army.  The genesis of the idea may have begun at the George Soros-funded International Crisis Group, one of the “think tanks” that Soros uses to promote policies that benefit him.  In this case, the ICG recommended last year that America deploy military forces to Uganda.  This move prompted questions since the rebel group did not pose a threat to American interests. But whose interests might be served by defeating the rebel group? George Soros — a major Obama backer.

Klein writes:

Soros himself has been closely tied to oil and other interests in Uganda.

In 2008, the Soros-funded Revenue Watch Institute brought together stakeholders from Uganda and other East African countries to discuss critical governance issues, including the formation of what became Uganda’s National Oil and Gas Policy.

Also in 2008, the Africa Institute for Energy Governance, a grantee of the Soros-funded Revenue Watch, helped established the Publish What You Pay Coalition of Uganda, or PWYP, which was purportedly launched to coordinate and streamline the efforts of the government in promoting transparency and accountability in the oil sector.

Also, a steering committee was formed for PWYP Uganda to develop an agenda for implementing the oil advocacy initiatives and a constitution to guide PWYP’s oil work.

PWYP has since 2006 hosted a number of training workshops in Uganda purportedly to promote contract transparency in Uganda’s oil sector.

PWYP is directly funded by Soros’ Open Society as well as the Soros-funded Revenue Watch Institute. PWYP international is actually hosted by the Open Society Foundation in London.

The billionaire’s Open Society Institute, meanwhile, runs numerous offices in Uganda. It maintains a country manager in Uganda, as well as the Open Society Initiative for East Africa, which supports work in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Soros seems to have his hand in trying to guide the development of the oil and gas industry in Uganda.  The Ugandan government would naturally be beholden to Soros if he could show he had enough influence with the White House to bring in American troops to take out a rebel group.  Also, the defeat of the rebel group would make development of the energy industry that much more viable since operations would be much more secure.

This strategy bears similarity with the story of InterOil, a major holding of George Soros, that has  been granted concessions for reportedly major natural gas reserves in Papua New Guinea.  The government there has recently been arguing with InterOil regarding that company’s ability to develop these reserves and build and operate a Liquefied Natural Gas port to export the gas.

What could friends of George Soros in the American government do to help him soothe the deal with the Papua New Guinea government? What the Obama administration did in fact do was send government experts all the way from here to there to help the nation develop its reserves. This was especially surprising since the Department of Interior has blamed its delay in issuing permits to develop our own domestic reserves on lack of manpower and funding — yet the administration found the manpower and money to export our experts do help develop New Guinea’s reserves. Or rather the reserves that InterOil and its major shareholder , George Soros, want developed courtesy of the American taxpayer.

Anyone see a pattern here? In one case, Obama sends military forces to Uganda — a nation where Soros has been active in trying to help it formulate a policy to tap its oil wealth.  But before the policies could be put in place, a rebel group needs to be vanquished.  In the other case, Obama sends American government experts to help another nation to develop its natural gas wealth when the one company ideally positioned to benefit from this taxpayer-funded development has as its major shareholder none other than George Soros.

Soros declared his own modus operandi when he said in a 2004 New Yorker profile that there are “symbiotic moments between political and business interests.”  He is a master at finding these moments and promoting the political careers of those who will do his bidding.

Source

Related articles

• Why U.S. military in Uganda? Soros fingerprints all over it (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Who’s Behind Obama’s New War in Uganda? (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)
• Why U.S. military in Uganda? Soros fingerprints all over it (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
• Soros’ ICG recommended that the US “deploy a team” to Uganda (bokertov.typepad.com)
• Analysis: Rocky start for Uganda’s oil sector (mb50.wordpress.com)
• Uganda: Minister aims to present oil bills this year (mb50.wordpress.com)
• The Landlords of #GlobalRevolution? George Soros, Brookfield Asset Management & #OWS’ Zuccotti Park (tancredoradio.wordpress.com)

InterOil Seeks Strategic Partner for Papua New Guinea LNG Project

InterOil Corporation today announced that the Company has retained Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. and UBS AG as joint financial advisors to assist InterOil with its soliciting and evaluating proposals from potential strategic partners in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project currently being led by InterOil’s joint venture entity, Liquid Niugini Gas Limited.

The Company anticipates that these proposals will relate to obtaining an internationally recognized LNG operating and equity partner for development of the Project’s gas liquefaction and associated facilities in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea, together with a sale of an interest in the Elk and Antelope fields and in InterOil’s exploration tenements in Papua New Guinea.

InterOil has determined, in response to inquiry from potential LNG partners and in consultation with the Papua New Guinea Government, to engage in a formal partnering process. The considerable strengthening of the Asian LNG market, the increased interest in exploration and investment in Papua New Guinea, as well as the Company’s reservoir analysis and project design fundamentals lead the Company to believe that now is an attractive time to seek a partner.

The Company expects that successful completion of such a transaction will satisfy the objectives of complementing the Company’s planned LNG development capabilities with an internationally recognized LNG partner and generating a third party valuation for InterOil’s resources.

“We look forward to working closely with Morgan Stanley, Macquarie and UBS as they support us in this evaluation process and in reaching what will surely be a milestone for InterOil, its shareholders and Papua New Guinea,” said Phil Mulacek, Chief Executive Officer of InterOil.

Original Article

Related articles

• Paupa New Guinea: FLEX Updates on Gulf LNG Project (mb50.wordpress.com)
• InterOil, Pacific LNG sign supply deal with Noble Clean Fuels (mb50.wordpress.com)
• InterOil and Noble Sign Heads of Agreement on LNG Sale (prnewswire.com)
• Rudd to visit PNG (news.theage.com.au)

Paupa New Guinea: FLEX Updates on Gulf LNG Project

FLEX LNG yesterday responded to the article published in the Norwegian business newspaper “Finansavisen” containing misleading information that portrays the Gulf LNG project in a manner that neither FLEX LNG nor InterOil Corporation recognize.

FLEX LNG has invested close to 500 million USD in equity in the construction contracts with SHI and a substantial amount of this equity will be allocated to the Gulf LNG project. The equity already paid in by FLEX LNG to Samsung Heavy Industries will cover all payments to Samsung Heavy Industries until delivery of the FLNG unit, when one final instalment will be due. Between Final Investment Decision (FID) and first LNG production from the Gulf LNG project, FLEX LNG’s funding requirement is limited to general working capital and project management cost in the period.

“FLEX LNG is proud to be part of the Gulf LNG project – a project that is expected to bring huge value to the Nation of Papua New Guinea and the Gulf Province from 2014 when first LNG production is expected.

“This can only be made possible by leveraging off work that has already been carried out by FLEX LNG in cooperation with Samsung Heavy Industries and WorleyParsons.”, FLEX LNG said in a press release.

Samsung Heavy Industries is the world’s leading shipyard, with an extensive experience in building complex offshore facilities and WorleyParson is a world leading EPC contractor.

Comments have been made in the press that the PNG government has shelved the Gulf LNG project.

“This is not correct and we have received confirmation from InterOil that they remain focused on developing a world class LNG project compliant with the Project Agreement signed in 2009 and that FLEX LNG continues to be an integral part of these plans. In order to strengthen the Gulf LNG project a world-class operator will be brought into the project. InterOil and FLEX LNG are jointly working to attract such an operator to the project.“, FLEX LNG added.

Commenting on the current situation, Chief Executive Officer of FLEX LNG Management Ltd, Philip Fjeld stated:

“FLEX LNG and its partners continue to work hard to achieve FID for the Gulf LNG project within 2011. FID for a large LNG project requires complete dedication by all parties involved and we are confident that all stakeholders involved in the Gulf LNG project are committed towards a timeline that would see LNG produced in 2014”.

Commenting on the current situation, the Chairman of InterOil, Phil Mulacek stated:

“LNG development in the Gulf Province has significant support in Papua New Guinea, as well as by the Gulf Ministers and local landowners where we have our vast gas and condensate development, as stated by the Minister of Petroleum late last night, and re-confirmed by the Prime Minister today in our meetings. A clarification which we agreed to today with the Prime Minister, is that the Petroleum Minister would like a proven LNG operator to join the project to strengthen LNG operations. InterOil has committed to ensure this occurs and will be working with all parties for a solid and successful outcome.”

Original Article

Related articles

• InterOil, Pacific LNG sign supply deal with Noble Clean Fuels (mb50.wordpress.com)
• InterOil and Noble Sign Heads of Agreement on LNG Sale (prnewswire.com)
• LNG Demand East of Suez Expected to Surge (mb50.wordpress.com)
• USA: Harvey Gulf BOD Approves Construction of LNG-Fueled Offshore Supply Vessels (mb50.wordpress.com)