PNG wants Total to start a new LNG project

Papua New Guinea’s energy minister said the country wants Total to source gas from a disputed field for a new LNG export project. 

PNG would like to see Total develop another LNG export plant to add to the ExxonMobil $19 billion PNG LNG project that already has plans for further expansion, reports Reuters.

Total bought a 40% stake in the country’s largest undeveloped deposit, the Elk and Antelope fields from InterOil but Oil Search, Exxon Mobil partner, claimed it had the right to buy the stake. The dispute will go into arbitration in November.

Total and InterOil would develop the mentioned fields as a source for the new LNG project while ExxonMobil and Oil Search consider this a potential source for the PNG LNG project expansion.

PNG energy minister Nixon Duban told Reuters that the country would prefer the fields to be used as a source for a separate project rather than to feed gas to an existing plant.

LNG World News Staff, September 26, 2014; Image: InterOil