Papua LNG Project is a planned Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production project in Papua New Guinea. Set to be located adjacent to the existing PNG LNG processing facilities, the project will have four LNG trains with a combined capacity of 4 million tonnes per year (Mt/y).
TotalEnergies operates the project with 40.1% interest. Other joint venture partners are ExxonMobil (37.1%) and Santos (22.8%).
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The fully integrated Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the Papua LNG project was launched in March 2023.
The Final Investment Decision (FID) is planned by the end of 2023 or early 2024.
At FID, the State of Papua New Guinea may exercise a back-in right to acquire up to 22.5% stake in the project.
Production is expected to commence four years after FID, in late 2027 or early 2028.
The development of the project, which is estimated to entail an investment of $10bn, will support LNG supplies to Asia as well as reduce the use of coal for power generation.
Location details
The Papua LNG Project will involve the development of LNG liquefaction capacity beside existing PNG LNG processing facilities in Caution Bay situated around 20km northwest of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.
The project will source natural gas from the Elk and Antelope onshore fields, which were fully appraised until 2017.
TotalEnergies is the operator of Elk and Antelope gas fields, which lie in block PRL 15 around 120km inland from the township of Kerema and 360km northwest from Port Moresby.
The upstream facilities are situated in a hilly area between 50-400m above the sea level.
Papua LNG project details
The Papua LNG Project will include nine production wells, one water injection well, one carbon dioxide reinjection well and a gas processing plant.
A 320km long pipeline will be used to transport gas from the Elk and Antelope fields to the Caution Bay site. Around 260km of the pipeline will be offshore.
The concept selected by the Papua LNG partners following the completion of pre-FEED studies includes four electrical LNG trains (e-trains) with a total capacity of 4Mt/y.
The trains will be developed within the existing liquefaction plant in PNG LNG.
Additionally, the project will also use 2Mt/y of additional liquefaction capacity in the existing trains of PNG LNG Plant.
It will also leverage a system to store ‘native’ carbon dioxide, which is produced with natural gas. The carbon dioxide will be separated and reinjected into one of the two reservoirs to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by around 1Mt/y.
The use of electric liquefaction trains and reinjection of the native carbon dioxide produced into the reservoirs will help in reducing the carbon intensity of the project.
ExxonMobil, the operator of the PNG LNG Project since 2014, will be responsible for the construction and operation of the electrical liquefaction trains.
The Papua LNG project will have the capacity to export 5.6 million tonnes of LNG per year.
Contractors involved
In August 2022, a consortium of Technip Energies and Clough was selected to conduct the FEED studies for the Papua LNG project’s upstream production facilities.
This included the development of the Elk and Antelope fields including the well pads and the central processing facility, as well as a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) scheme.
In March 2023, Japanese engineering company JGC Corporation in partnership with Hyundai Engineering & Construction secured the FEED and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) estimation contract for the downstream LNG facilities for the project in Papua New Guinea.
About PNG LNG Project
The PNG LNG Project is an integrated development featuring gas production and processing facilities. The facilities are connected by more than 700km of onshore and offshore pipeline.
It is operated by ExxonMobil PNG on behalf of five co-venture partners.
LNG production began in April 2014 and its leading customers in Asia include China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), Osaka Gas Company, the Tokyo Electric Power Company and CPC Corporation.
PNG LNG operations have the capacity to produce more than 8.3 million tonnes of LNG and the project is estimated to produce more than 11 trillion cubic feet of LNG over its lifetime.
