A recent report by Platts on the possible supermajor bidders for an operating stake of InterOil’s Elk-Antelope field seems close to the mark.

Without attributing a source, Platts raised that the “interested parties are understood to be ExxonMobil, Shell and France's Total [SA]”.

PNGIndustryNews.net has long suspected that a bid was made by ExxonMobil, while another was made by French supermajor Total as part of joint bid with Oil Search. 

Oil Search and Total already became partners in several offshore and onshore Gulf province licences last year and their Gulf of Papua drilling campaign is underway with the spudding of the Flinders 1 well at the end of March. 

A clue to their possible interest to InterOil’s Gulf LNG project, which is underpinned by Elk-Antelope in Gulf province, was revealed by Oil Search in its JV announcement last year. 

“While the focus of the transaction is on exploring and developing the prospective offshore Gulf and eastern forelands area, Oil Search and Total have also agreed to form a strategic partnership to look at other licences in PNG, excluding the Highlands area,” Oil Search said at the time. 

Curiously, The National reported that Total “eyes PNG LNG” in relation to the news that Total executives recently met with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill. 

In this respect one wonders if some PNG reporters are in the habit of attributing any LNG-related news as pertaining to the PNG LNG project. 

While the recent story by Wantok on PNGIndustryNews.net covers why it’s logical to think Exxon has made a bid, a recent report by Upstream Onlineplaced Royal Dutch Shell in the box seat. 

The journalist who penned that story has long been reporting on petroleum developments and one of his former colleagues deemed him to be “pretty reliable most times” to PNGIndustryNews.net. 

There is also the background to consider with Shell having established a strategic alliance with 22.5% Elk-Antelope field state nominee Petromin in 2011 – although the government aims to transfer Petromin’s assets to new state-owned enterprises later this year. 

All that is on the record from InterOil at the moment is that at least two supermajors have made bids while Exxon, Oil Search, Total and Shell do not publicly comment on such matters.

In regards to the ongoing negotiations, there is still uncertainty over whether other parties might be seeking non-operating interests in the field and what portion of the field the PNG government aims to secure.

As for InterOil’s recent moves to change its bylaws and shareholders rights plan, one industry source viewed it as “part of the process to kickstart LNG”.