ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT REPORT VOLUME 1_ MAIN REPORT

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Markham Valley Biomass Ltd

Oil Search Limited (Oil Search/OSL), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Markham ValleyBiomass Limited (MVB)1, proposes to develop the PNG Biomass Markham Valley project(hereafter referred to as ‘the Pro ject’) in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The Project area (also referred to as Area A) is located in the Markham Valley, about 50 km west-northwest of the provincial capital Lae (Figure ES1). The Project is a response to a call from PNG Power Ltd (PPL) for an Independent Power Producer (IPP) to generate 30 to 40 MW of power near Lae, and reflects the requirements of a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that was executed with PPL on 15 December 2015. The Project will address, at least partially, the current inability of the Ramu grid to provide reliable power, and the PNG Government's long-term objective of increasing the availability of reliable and sustainable power supply at a reasonable cost. Power generated by the Project will provide reliable baseload power to households, industries and resource projects on the Ramu grid, whichruns from Lae and Madang in the east to Mt Hagen and M endi in the west.