ExxonMobil to assume operatorship of Papua LNG from TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies SE has agreed to transfer operatorship of the Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea to ExxonMobil Corp. and sell a 9.1% interest in the development to existing joint venture partners, reducing its interest to 20% following the Papua New Guinea state’s exercise of its back-in right through Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd.

The operatorship transfer will align the 5.6 million tonne/year (tpy) Papua LNG plant at Caution Bay, Papua New Guinea, with the nearby ExxonMobil-operated, 8-million tpy PNG LNG plant. The move is a step towards a final investment decision (FID) of Papua LNG and is intended to maximize synergies during the construction and operations phases, said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and chief executive officer, TotalEnergies, in a release Sept. 7.

Upon completion of the sell-down and the state’s back-in exercise, Papua LNG project ownership is expected to comprise ExxonMobil (34.1%), Santos Ltd. (21.0%), TotalEnergies (20.0%), ENEOS Xplora Inc. (2.4%), and state-owned Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd. and MRDC (22.5%).

TotalEnergies will maintain its LNG offtake share of the project. Separately, the company executed a heads of agreement providing access to 1.5 million tonnes/year (tpy) of LNG for its global portfolio.