Stavros with an excellent piece on SA:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1174841-interoil-asset-sell-down-or-100-takeover?
In September 2011 InterOil Corporation (NYSE: IOC) hired three world-class Investment banks - Morgan Stanley & Co LLC (MS) in the US, UBS AG in Europe (UBS), and Macquarie Capital in Asia - to lead the bid process to select an internationally recognized LNG operator to join the Gulf LNG project in Papua New Guinea. After a long series of delays in the process (due to PNG political uncertainty in late 2011 and new PNG elections through 3Q 2012), InterOil announced on January 24, 2013 that formal bidding instructions were sent out to all potential bidders by the investment banks with a firm deadline for bids of February 28, 2013.
Phil Mulacek, IOC's CEO, said "We understand the PNG Government's desire to have an internationally recognized LNG operator join the project and we trust that our LNG bid process will fully satisfy that requirement. We welcome the continued support of both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Petroleum who endorse an LNG project in the Gulf which complies with the LNG Project Agreement." InterOil has been working extremely closely with Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and the Minister of Petroleum and Exploration, William Duma, to ensure the partners, deal structure and bidding process is acceptable to the PNG government.
Let's examine exactly what is the gas and condensate resource that is involved in the Gulf LNG project, who might the potential LNG operators be, and why would those companies be interested in partnering in the first place?
The Elk/Antelope Resource
GLJ Petroleum Consultants Ltd. (GLJ) has been commissioned by IOC annually to prepare an independent resource assessment of the Elk/Antelope Gas Field which is located in Petroleum Prospecting License 238 in Papua New Guinea. IOC will hold a roughly 58.6% participating interest in the asset assuming all investors and the Papua New Guinea Government elect to fully participate after a Production Development License has been granted.
The structure was discovered with the drilling of the well Elk-1 which tested gas at 21.7 MMCFD (million cubic feet per day) from drill stem test #2 (DST#2) in 2006. The reservoir of the Elk/Antelope structure is contained within fractured limestones of the Puri and Mendi Formations. The well Antelope-1 was rig released in 2009 and discovered a dolomitized reef facies. The dolomitized reef was further delineated by the well Antelope-2. [Read on here]