Papua New Guinea has reached an agreement with French company Total on a planned second major LNG gas project in the country.
LNG Project site in Papua new Guinea's Hela Province. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
PNG's prime minister Peter O'Neill announced the agreement at a major business meeting in Port Moresby on the eve of this weekend's APEC leader summit in PNG's capital.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Mr O'Neill's government and Total along with its LNG project partners ExxonMobil and Oil Search.
They agreed to set financial terms early next year for the project which would commercialise gas from PNG's Elk-Antelope fields that Total secured a licence for in 2014.
The Papua LNG project would supply gas from Elk-Antelope for two new processing units, called trains, at ExxonMobil's PNG LNG plant.
The Total project is expected to double PNG's liquefied natural gas exports.