JVOA

[Tree]

To my opinion, for a JVOA to be executed by the Government it first requires the JVOA to be agreed among the Partners ... in PNG LNG's case it was agreed by : + XOM + Santos + Oil Search + AGL + Nippon Oil + Landowners The government was not included; they opted in later, thus reducing the other's shares commensurately. So please posit for us Tree ... exactly who do you think it was who negotiated the JVOA's (plural) with IOC and then signed same? The signatories should have been announced, just as they were by XOM for the PNG LNG Project you quoted. If the partners have not yet been included then they will have the right to demand reopening and possible modifications to the JVOA's at a later date. Nothing seems to be going "according to Hoyle" in the Gulf LNG Project and that's why there are so many non-believers in the investing world. DISCLOSURE: I have been very long IOC stock for 5 years

Thanks for the question Stavros.

I wouldn't count on the PNG LNG JOA to be the blueprint we are following.  I trust the Mitsui/IOC CSP JVOA model will be more appropriate for a Gulf LNG comparison.

My view is this.  There are a couple types of approvals that will make up our JVOA.

Statutory approval - The approval enacted by law or legislation granted by the state authority.  We now have this and should make final best offers even more accretive.

Corporate approval - The approval granted by managers/BoDs of all corporate participants for their respective entities to enter into binding agreements.  Winning bidder will have this.

IOC/Gulf LNG as of April 15th has the full authority granted by PNG regulators to sign corporate partners of IOC's choice into binding JVOA, binding IOC/Partners, new partners and Gov't into a pre-approved JVOA framework.

Your question of 'who do I posit are the negotiating parties of the JVOA  and which parties signed the JVOA?' is like asking 'how long is a piece of string TREE!'

Answer is - No JVOA has been signed yet, corporate framework JVOA's most likely have negotiated with each remaining bidder and each has received Statutory approvals from PNG.

IOC/IBs will choose the winning investing partners and those partners will at that time sign the  pre-authorized JVOA and voila - Gulf LNG will be bankable.

Next up would be FID.  FID could be simultaneous with JVOA corporate signing any day now, under 1 scheme and could take several months after corporate signing to reach under another(s).

When you think about it, being granted Statutory JVOA approval prior to the corporate transaction IS the way this should be done to attract the best prices.   PNG LNG left some bucks on the table.

DISCLOSURE:  I am VERY long and have been since 2009.  Couldn't y'all tell?  (Not that makes me any more credible)