Papua New Guinea approves LNG project terms

April 21, 2008
The government of Papua New Guinea has approved fiscal terms with the ExxonMobil-led consortium proposing the PNG LNG project.

Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent

MELBOURNE, Apr. 21 -- The government of Papua New Guinea has approved fiscal terms with the ExxonMobil-led consortium proposing the PNG LNG project, enabling it to move into the front-end engineering and design stage (OGJ Online, Mar. 18, 2008).

Prime Minister Michael Somare made the announcement in the PNG Parliament.

Technical issues remain to be settled. They are believed to involve the diameter of the pipeline bringing gas to the plant and concern about supply to gas projects other than LNG.

The $11 billion project will take gas from Hides, Angore,and Juha fields as well as associated gas from the producing Kutubu, Agogo, Gobe, and Moran oil fields in the Southern Highlands and western provinces.

Gas will be treated at Hides before moving to a 6.3 million tonne/year liquefaction plant to be built near Port Moresby. On-stream date is scheduled for 2013.

Partners are ExxonMobil 41.6%, Oil Search 34.1%, Santos 17.7%, AGL Energy 3.6%, and Nippon Oil 1.8%. Local landholder interests hold the remaining 1.2%.