CAPITAL: Port Moresby

MONETARY UNIT: Kina

REFINING CAPACITY: None

OIL PRODUCTION: 81,100 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 333 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 5.44 tcf

Chevron Corp. said the proposed $3.7 billion (Australian) gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea to Australia was expected to close financing in October 2000.

Meanwhile, the PNG government-controlled Orogen Minerals Ltd. paid $145 million (US) for Broken Hill Pty. Co. Ltd.`s share of the project, including interests in the Kutubu and Gobe fields which would feed the pipeline to Australia`s Queensland state.

Orogen was left with 25% of the Kutubu field permit and 30% of the main Gobe field permit.

The 2,500-km pipeline project still needed to secure financing and win several Papua New Guinea license approvals.

Progress on the pipeline project was delayed for months as Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp. negotiated how to combine the Kutubu gas reserves with Exxon Mobil`s Hildes field reserves in one joint venture.

The remaining hurdle for the pipeline to Gladstone on Queensland`s central coast was signing agreements with potential customers. They include Comalco Ltd., Australia`s largest aluminum producer, and Stanwell Corp., an electricity generator owned by the Queensland government.

Sponsors said prospects improved when the Queensland government said that its state-owned power station, Tarong, would build two gas-fired units, and two smaller plants would convert to using gas.

Meanwhile, Oil Search said its Kimu 1 gas discovery, drilled on the PPL193 permit in the foreland region of Papua New Guinea, can produce more than 50 MMcfd.

Kimu 1 encountered a 100-ft column of gas-saturated sands in the Alene sandstone.