AFTER a year of delay because of Covid-19, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government and Total, the operator of the Papua LNG project, have announced the remobilisation of the project teams and of other required resources.
This followed a meeting on Monday between Total chairman and chief executive officer Patrick Pouyanné and a delegation of Papua New Guinea led by the Deputy Prime Minister Samuel Basil in Paris, France, with the objective to review together the next steps for the development of the Papua LNG project. The objective is to launch the front end engineering design (Feed) in early 2022 and to prepare for a final investment decision in 2023.
This positive development followed the signing and the reconfirmation of the Papua LNG gas agreement in 2019, the signing of the fiscal stability agreement and the award of the licence extension in February.
Pouyanné said he was honoured to welcome Basil to the company’s head office in Paris to review the Papua LNG implementation plan.
“This is indeed a very strong signal of the dedication of the PNG Government to the success of this key project,” he said.
“I confirm that this project is ranking very high in Total‘s portfolio given its proximity to growing Asian LNG markets and we will dedicate all necessary resources.”
Basil said it was important for the Government to meet the Total chairman and CEO and the French authorities to stress the importance to PNG of the Papua LNG project and to pledge their full support to the project.
“I am pleased with the outcome of this meeting with clear implementation plans,” Basil said.
Papua LNG project will target the production of the two main discoveries of block PRL-15, Elk and antelope, that were fully appraised until 2017.
It is expected that the gas produced by these fields will be transported by a 320 km onshore/offshore pipeline to the Caution Bay site in order to be liquefied in two trains to be built with a total capacity of 5.6 Mt/y which will be integrated to the existing PNG LNG facilities in Caution Bay.
Total and PNG authorities will cooperate to create significant in-country value and to implement the Papua LNG project in an exemplary manner and taking into highest consideration the biodiversity and environmental stakes as well as the local communities’ rights.
Statement
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