Total and ExxonMobil are in discussions to find a “reasonable agreement” on the use of facilities for two currently separate liquefied natural gas projects in Papua New Guinea, writes Eoin O’Cinneide.

The ExxonMobil-operated PNG LNG development is already producing, while Total is still aiming to take a final investment decision on the two-train Papua LNG brownfield development next year.

The two trains will develop the Total-operated Elk-Antelope gas field, but those trains, together with a third train to develop gas from the ExxonMobil-operated P’nyang field, will be built on the site of PNG LNG.

Each of the three trains will have production capacity of about 2.7 million tonnes per annum.

While all partners have agreed on the capacity of the trains, other issues need to be sorted out — not least agreements on how the respective joint ventures will build and operate the projects.

Total president of gas, renewables and power, Philippe Sauquet, said on the sidelines of the Gastech conference in Barcelona this week that negotiations between the partners in both projects are currently ongoing.

“There is a need to find an agreement where we can maximise synergies between the two projects, because it would of course be a waste of value for all partners of the two projects if they were in the end two different projects, two different sites, and so on.

“So, discussion is going on between the two projects to find a reasonable agreement between the two projects.”

Sauquet said there are easy precedents for hammering out such agreements on shared use of LNG trains, such as at the North Field in Qatar, where both Total and ExxonMobil are partners, amongst others.

Despite the continuing discussions, Sauquet said he still sees a final investment decision on Papua LNG next year.

“What is currently going on is the marketing of the volumes and we are starting to get a lot of interest from the Asian buyers,” he said.

The upstream development concept for Elk-Antelope comprises the construction of a large central processing facility near the Purari River in Gulf Province.

The PNG LNG facility is near the capital of Port Moresby.

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