No sign of damage to PNG gas pipeline: ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil Corp said on Wednesday there was no indication so far that a powerful earthquake in Papua New Guinea (PNG) this week has damaged the 700-kilometer pipeline that delivers gas to its coastal liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

The 7.5-magnitude quake led Exxon to shut its $19 billion LNG facility, the country’s biggest export earner, amid fears of damage to gas field infrastructure and the pipeline that carries gas to the coast.

Exxon planned a full visual inspection of the pipeline route, while specialist engineers would need “a little bit of time” to assess damage to the project, company officials said.

“We have had no indications that the PNG LNG pipeline has sustained damage and will be undertaking a full visual inspection of the pipeline right away as part of our ongoing assessments,” ExxonMobil’s PNG spokesperson said.

“Specialist engineers are being brought in to assess impact and this will likely take a little bit of time,” said Frank Kretschmer, senior vice president of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific’s LNG marketing division.

ExxonMobil shut the two LNG trains at the coastal plant following the quake, but these have not been damaged, Kretschmer said.

Buyers who have contracted regular supplies of Exxon’s Papuan LNG said they expect the outage to last at least seven days.

The PNG LNG project is considered one of the world’s best-performing LNG operations, having started exports in 2014 ahead of schedule, despite the challenge of drilling for gas and building a plant and pipeline in the remote jungle of PNG.

The plant has been producing at around 20 percent above its rated capacity of 6.9 million tons a year.