Remember this article from last year?

[Getitrt2]

Why would IOC want 15% in two trains at PNG LNG plus cash, rather than 25-30% in two trains at a Total project with PRL 15 plus MORE cash AND further expansion opportunity AND the likelihood of gas to sell to PNG LNG from elsewhere per Hession? Total has already beaten Exxon's best offer on PRL 15, and I doubt that is going to change. I agree on doing both; it's a matter of how, which probably won't be certain before further drilling at PRL 15 and elsewhere. In the meantime, CLOSE THE SPA WITH TOTAL. Not to say I couldn't be wrong. By the way, Justin, with respect to who's "steering the ship", I feel absolutely certain it is NOT Mulacek. Try Hession, in coordination with O'Neill.

It's called risk management Getit.  IOC already has enough risk just having all eggs in PNG.  PNG LNG will be up and running in a few months and expansion trains are much more certain than a new plant in a sparcely populated Gulf Province.  As a shareholder I like taking a smaller % in 3 future trains where IOC has to put in less cash.  And the government looks at it the same way.  I'll take the separate plant on top of it, but PNG LNG can be seen, touched and felt.

I'm not concerned about all IOC's eggs in PNG;  it's the best place for them.  Address that through your own investment allocation.  Hession concluded the deal with Total has less risk and more certainty of full PRL 15 monetization/development than the best Exxon would offer on PNG LNG expansion, the opposite of what you are now saying, and I trust him on that far more than anyone on this forum.  Total will not build the plant in Gulf Province if that's not the best place.  IOC expects to have enough cash for that, and as a shareholder I like investing it with much greater returns.  Gas from elsewhere is likely for PNG LNG, for the right price.  No one has yet shown me any convincing indication the government has a decisive problem with that, nor any indication from Hession of that, although we may have more information on that before month end.  The SPA and hundreds of millions in cash from Total, followed next year by billions in cash, can be seen, touched, and felt, not to mention banked.  I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, respectfully so on my part at least.