Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has withdrawn its $8.5b (A$11.6b) all-share offer for Papua New Guinea-based Oil Search Ltd’s stake in the PNG’s government’s LNG project, as Oil Search rejected the bid, Platts reported.

Oil Search, an emerging LNG producer with a 29 % stake in the ExxonMobil-run LNG projects in Papua New Guinea (PNG), operates all PNG’s producing oil fields with an estimated production capacity of 6.9mmt/year, while having extracted 7.4mmt/year in Q3.

The PNG LNG project is currently weighing expansion of its facility near Port Moresby. Oil Search, working with ExxonMobil Corp and France’s Total SA, said it was focused on its low-cost operations in PNG aiming at doubling its output in the early 2020s, Reuters informed.