The construction of three LNG trains is a likely development concept that will be proposed by joint venture partners of Petroleum Retention License (PRL) 15 to the Government and other partners.
Oil Search managing director, Peter Botten, revealed this during the announcement of OSL’s 2017 results.
Botten said productive, high level meetings were held with ExxonMobil and Total to discuss the results of the downstream development options that were received by the PRL 15 joint venture partners last December.
“The partners have reached broad agreement on the preferred development concept, which will be presented to the PNG Government and other PNG LNG and PRL 3 joint venture partners for endorsement.
“The development concept that will be proposed is likely to comprise the construction of three LNG trains, with total capacity of approximately 8 MTPA (metric tons per annum).
“Two of these trains are likely to be dedicated to Papua LNG, supplied with gas from the Elk-Antelope fields, with an additional expansion train underpinned by gas from the existing PNG LNG fields and the P’nyang field.
“We expect negotiations on cost sharing arrangements and the principles governing integration to commence shortly, which will enable the completion of downstream and upstream technical studies.”
Botten anticipates discussions with the Government on project gas agreements to commence late in the first quarter or early second quarter of 2018, with a decision on the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase in the second half of 2018.
This is, he added, subject to partner approvals and progress on Government negotiations.
“It is expected that LNG from the Papua LNG Project will be equity marketed. In preparation, we have recently established an office in Japan, staffed by a highly experienced team, with collectively more than 70 years in LNG marketing.
“We are increasingly confident about the demand outlook for LNG from PNG, with a material shortfall in supply developing in the early 2020s, and will be targeting key NE and SE Asian markets for offtake agreements.”
(Oil Search managing director, Peter Botten)