Exxon, PNG to revive P’nyang project talks
Papua New Guinea government and ExxonMobil intend to restart negotiations on the P’nyang project, Sydney-listed Oil Search, a partner in the project, said on August 23. The talks were called off in 2019.
Oil Search confirmed that the PNG government and Esso PNG P’nyang, the ExxonMobil subsidiary operating PRL 3, jointly announced their intention to re-engage in the negotiations on the P’nyang project.
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“A series of workshops regarding the development of the P’nyang gas fields will take place over the next couple of weeks and if all goes well, we can expect to sign a P'nyang heads of agreement around the end of this next month and a gas agreement thereafter,” PNG minister for petroleum, Kerenga Kua, said.
The signing of the deal will support PNG’s plan to significantly expand its LNG exports in the coming years. The talks got stalled in late 2019 as the government wanted better terms. Oil Search, ExxonMobil and France's Total are working on developing the proposed Papua LNG project and expanding the existing PNG LNG plant.
ExxonMobil and its partners had intended to develop P'nyang to feed a new train at the two-train PNG LNG plant. Recently, Total and PNG remobilised the Papua LNG project following talks in Paris.
“This is a positive step towards the development of the P’nyang gas resource and signals the strength of support between the PRL3 joint venture and the government of Papua New Guinea for a mutually beneficial outcome,” Diego Fettweis, Oil Search’s EVP commercial, said.
PNG LNG project is Oil Search's flagship asset. Santos and Oil Search earlier this month announced their plans to merge.