Sasol Mulls Divesting Gas Assets in PNG

South Africa’s Sasol is planning to exit from its gas assets based in Papua New Guinea.

'Sasol is considering divesting from Papua New Guinea,' Alex Anderson, a company spokesman, told The Wall Street Journal. 'We are currently engaging interested parties.'

The company has acquired acreage near several large natural gas discoveries nearly five years ago with an aim to develop a gas-to-liquids project in Papua New Guinea. However, the results from these areas have been far below expectation. Sasol’s Awapa-1 exploration well drilled in mid-2011 came up dry, The Wall Street Journal said.

Wall Street Journal added that interest among international energy companies in Papua New Guinea’s gas potential remains high, largely driven by ExxonMobil's $19 billion PNG LNG project, which is due to start shipping liquefied natural gas to Asian customers next year. 

Papua New Guinea has an estimated 26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which could be developed for export to Asia.

Sasol owns 41% of an exploration block known as PPL 426, with the remaining interest held by Canada’s Talisman Energy and Japan’s Mitsui & Co. It also has a majority stake in the adjacent PPL 287 block, which it’s been exploring with Talisman, The Wall Street Journal said.