JX Nippon farms into Elk-Antelope gas field in PNG

TotalEnergies, operator of the developing Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea, has farmed out a small portion of its interest in the eastern Highlands retention lease PRL 15 that contains Elk/Antelope gas field to JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration.

JX Nippon will farm in for a 2.58% interest. A transaction price has not been disclosed. The percentage interest is prior to the expected PNG Government back-in and is subject to approval from the Papua New Guinea Government’s Department of Petroleum and Energy.

The Elk/Antelope gas and condensate fields will be the source for the 5.6-million tonnes/year (tpy) Papua LNG project with first production expected by end-2027 or early 2028.

Following pre-FEED studies the joint venture has selected a development concept comprised of onshore and offshore pipelines to send produced gas to a bank of four new electric LNG trains to be constructed near the existing ExxonMobil-operated LNG plant at Caution Bay west of Port Moresby.

A final investment decision for Papua LNG is scheduled for yearend or early 2024.

Upon completion of the farm-in, deal interests in PRL 15 will be TotalEnergies (37.55%), ExxonMobil (37.04%), Santos (22.83%), and JX Nippon (2.58%).

The PNG Government has the right to back in for up to 22.5% interest in the project.

JX Nippon also holds a 4.7% participating interest in the ExxonMobil-led PNG LNG project.