Petromin in the dark on Gunvor deal
Papua New Guinea national energy company Petromin has criticised Canadian explorer InterOil for not including the PNG company in last week's gas supply agreement with Gunvor for gas from the Elk-Antelope fields.
Petromin is a co-owner of the Elk-Antelope fields, but said that InterOil had "again not involved Petromin" in the offtake agreement with Gunvor.
“InterOil has not informed or consulted Petromin on the commercial terms of the MoAs that is has executed to date, including the off-take arrangement recently signed with Gunvor," said Petromin chairman Brown Bai.
He said the Petromin board believed it was critical for the success of the Elk-Antelope project that "a world-class operator with proven track records of LNG development is again engaged in delivering the second LNG project for the country".
"Petromin...looks forward to being involved with the state in any review of the project agreement."
The Elk-Antelope fields are the proposed feedstock for what InterOil calls the Gulf LNG project.
Last month, the PNG government voiced its dissatisfaction with the “fragmented” shape of Gulf LNG and said it wanted the project to return to the development model proposed in the December 2009 Project Agreement.
The Gulf LNG project is an unusual collection of separate developments.
The first part is a condensate stripping project in a joint venture between InterOil and Mitsui; the second is a mid-size LNG plant to be built in joint venture with Australia’s Energy World Corporation for 3 million tonnes per annum of LNG; the third venture is a floating LNG project with Flex LNG and Samsung Heavy Industries for 2 million tpa.
The owners have two separate LNG supply deals with Singapore's Gunvor for 1 million tonnes per annum of LNG for 15 years from 2015, and with Singapore's Noble for 1 million tpa over 10 years from 2014.
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