TotalEnergies has said that more efforts are needed before a final investment decision can be made regarding the planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea.

Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne recently told Prime Minister James Marape that the project would need cooperation with third-party contractors to reach commercially viable engineering, procurement, and construction contracts.

The company said in a press release that to achieve this goal, the project will review the structure of some packages and open the competition ton enlarged panel of Asian contractors. Consequently, the final investment decision (FID) on the Papua LNG project has been extended to 2025.

While the head of local producer Kumul Petroleum had said that the final investment decision was due to 2024, both Marape and Pouyanne confirmed that this delay would not impede the early works scheduled in Papua New Guinea for 2024.

The Papua LNG project, with capacity of 5.4 million tons per year (mtpa), represents the second major gas project in the impoverished Pacific country and is a joint venture between TotalEnergies, Exxon Mobil and Santos along state-owned Kumul Petroleum.

Pouyanné announced that TotalEnergies intends to drill the first deepwater exploration well on the PPL 576 license in 2025.