Gobe

The Gobe oil field in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, 85 kilometres south east of the Kutubu oil project, was initially developed by Chevron. It consists of two producing oil fields; the South East Gobe and the Gobe Main oil fields. The South East Gobe field was discovered in 1991. It was a significant discovery at the time as it was the first time in Papua New Guinea that commercial quantities of oil was discovered to exist in Iagifu sandstone structures. Before this discovery all previous oil finds had occurred in Toro sandstone. The Gobe Main oil field was subsequently discovered in late 1993, five kilometres to the north west of the South East Gobe oil field. Oil in the Gobe Main field also exists in Iagifu sandstones. As at December 2013 the Gobe Main oil reserve stood at 0.2 million barrels and South East Gobe reserve was 0.6 million barrels.

The Gobe Crude oil Development Comprises two oil Fields - South East Gobe and Main Gobe
The Gobe development's two separate oil fields are operated by Oil Search (PNG) Limited, a company that also has shareholdings in the joint venture's separate ownership percentages that cover the South East Gobe and Main Gobe oil fields ownership. Other joint venture partners include the following; Southern Highlands Petroleum Limited, Santos (through Barracuda Limited), Cue PNG Oil Co Limited, Petroleum Resources (Gobe) Limited, Merlin Petroleum Company and ExxonMobil through Ampolex (Highlands) Limited.

Crude oil obtained from the Gobe oil field is exported from the site via an eight kilometre pipeline that transports it to the Gobe Processing Plant. The existing pipeline from the processing facility, that also services the Kutubu oil field, takes the oil from the processing plant to the marine loading terminal in the Gulf of Papua.

Existing Infrastructure Ensured Gobe Development Would be Economically Viable
Existing infrastructure benefitted the Gobe project by ensuring it was economically viable from its very beginning along with combining the two oil fields into one integrated development project. The developing company Chevron was also the developer of the Kutubu field which had already produced 220 million barrels of oil since it was brought onstream in 1992, to the time when the Gobe project was ready to commence production in its own right. The application of horizontal well technology at the time also proved to be an important factor contributing to the Kutubu oil fields 36 million barrel increase in recoverable reserves. The Moran oil field is situated about 12 kilometres to the north of the Kutubu oil field facilities. The developing company had constructed and commissioned an extended well test from the first two Moran oil wells prior to the Gobe wells commencing production that indicated estimated reserves of 100 million barrels. The Moran field was eventually brought into full production during the final quarter of 2000. The combined oil production from the Kutubu, Gobe and Moran oil fields reached a peak of 122,000 barrels of oil a day in 1999.

Gobe oil Production on the Decline
Oil production from the South East Gobe field peaked a 18,500 barrels a day in December 1988 and in September 1999 the Gobe Main peaked at 20,000 barrels a day. Both oil fields are currently in decline but because of active well management and ongoing facility optimisation being ongoing the declining effect is considerably mitigated.

At the end of December 2013 the remaining oil reserves at the Gobe oil fields were contained within high permeability oil rims in the upper and lower Iagifu sandstones. Oil from the Gobe fields is marketed as part of the 'Kutubu Blend' along with the Kutubu and Moran oils.
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