France’s TotalEnergies and its partners in the Papua LNG export project have signed amendments to the project’s gas agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea, paving the way for a final investment decision by the end of the year.
TotalEnergies has a 37.55 percent operating stake in the Papua LNG project, ExxonMobil has 37.04 percent, Santos owns a 22.83 percent interest, and Eneos Explora holds 2.58 percent.
Luke Liria, acting managing director of PNG’s national petroleum and energy company Kumul Petroleum, announced via his LinkedIn channel on Thursday the signing of the amendments to the Papua LNG gas agreement, marking a “major milestone” towards FID and the development of PNG’s second LNG project.
“The amendments strike a balance between attracting global investment and protecting PNG’s long-term national interests,” he said.
Liria said that Kumul “retains its 22.5 percent equity position, while the project moves closer to a targeted FID before the end of 2026.”
“With an estimated investment of approximately $14.5 billion (K60 billion), Papua LNG has the potential to create jobs, stimulate local businesses, and drive economic growth across our country for decades to come. This is an important step forward for PNG and a strong vote of confidence in our nation’s future,” Liria.
He did not provide further details.
LNG Prime contacted TotalEnergies for comment, but we did not receive a reply by the time this article was published.
Papua LNG’s downstream facilities will be located at Caution Bay, adjacent to the existing ExxonMobil-operated PNG LNG plant.
The project includes three new electrified LNG trains with a total capacity of 4 mtpa, complemented by access to an additional 2 mtpa of existing liquefaction capacity.
Contractors selected
In April 2024, the Papua LNG partners delayed the project’s FID to 2025, saying that they needed to keep working with contractors to obtain “commercially viable” EPC contracts.
TotalEnergies and its partners recently selected South Korea’s Daewoo E&C as the preferred bidder for the EPCC of the project’s central processing facility and well pads.
The South Korean firm did not provide pricing details, and the final contract will be awarded following FID on the project.
If finalized, Daewoo E&C will be solely responsible for the entire EPCC process for the CPF and related infrastructure, which will process and treat natural gas produced from Elk-Antelope before supplying it to an LNG liquefaction plant near Port Moresby.
Earlier this year, Japan’s JGC and South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction said that they have been selected as the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the downstream LNG facilities.
JGC also said the final EPC contract award is expected after the project’s FID in 2026.
Last month, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne confirmed that the Papua LNG partners are targeting FID on the project by the end of this year.
“On Papua LNG, we are working all together very closely with ExxonMobil, with Santos, with the government, of course. The government has just launched the last part of the procedures, the local hearings. The objective is to clearly to sanction all that before year-end,” Pouyanne said during the second-quarter call.
“November, I think, is the target,” he said.
“We are aligning the interests of all the partners in the interest of the projects; we are studying how we can maximize synergies today between Papua and PNG LNG in order to deliver the most efficient project to the government,” Pouyanne said. (August 27, 2026, Source: https://lngprime.com/contracts-and-tenders/totalenergies-partners-seal-papua-lng-deal-with-papua-new-guinea/195878/)
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