Elusive Papua LNG sanction still on cards for this year

TotalEnergies and its partners in the Papua LNG project are still waiting for a start to negotiations between the Papua New Guinea government and local landowners that are crucial to a final investment decision for the venture.

The partners had hoped for an FID in mid-2026, but the second half of 2026 is now the target, project partner Santos said in its first quarter report.

Re-bidding of the upstream engineering, procurement and construction contracts has been completed, and project financing discussions are progressing, Santos said.

“An upcoming milestone is the government-led development forum, scheduled for the second quarter of 2026.”

Papua LNG is based on development of the Elk and Antelope onshore fields in Gulf Province connected via onshore and offshore pipelines to new liquefaction trains at the existing PNG LNG location.

It has proven to be a very complex undertaking for TotalEnergies, and is the French company’s first project in PNG.

The operator said recently that it had, in part through the re-negotiation of EPC contracts, brought down the capex estimate to between $14 billion and $15 billion, versus the previous estimate of $18 billion.

Several very large EPC contracts will be awarded for the upstream development, offshore pipelines, onshore pipelines, and three new electric liquefied natural gas trains.

JGC said last month the final EPC contract award and notice to proceed are expected to follow the FID.

The scope of work would be three new LNG trains with capacity of 1.33 million tonnes per annum each.

Link: https://www.upstreamonline.com/lng/elusive-papua-lng-sanction-still-on-cards-for-this-year/2-1-1980320