PNG wants Total to develop disputed gas field - energy minister
SINGAPORE, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Papua New Guinea wants Total SA to lead construction of a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project drawing gas from a disputed field instead of the gas being used to expand an existing giant project, the country's energy minister said.
The South Pacific nation began exports from Exxon Mobil Corp's $19 billion PNG LNG project this year. While an expansion of that project is planned, Papua New Guinea hopes to see French Total lead another LNG export plant.
Total earlier this year bought a 40 percent stake in Papua New Guinea's biggest undeveloped gas deposit, the Elk and Antelope fields, from local firm InterOil Corp.
However, Oil Search, a partner in Exxon Mobil's project, has challenged Total's purchase of the stake, saying it held the right to buy the stake. The dispute is due to go into arbitration in November.
InterOil and Total want to develop the Elk and Antelope fields and build a new LNG project in Papua New Guinea, while Exxon Mobil and Oil Search see the fields as a potential source of gas for an expansion of the PNG LNG project.
PNG energy minister Nixon Duban said gas from Elk and Antelope was unlikely to be fed into the existing plant, and that he would prefer a separate LNG plant to be built.
"For a European company like Total to choose Papua New Guinea gives a lot of prominence to us as an investment destination," Duban, who was attending an LNG conference in Singapore, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
Duban also said he welcomed Exxon Mobil's plan to expand its existing project.
Exxon Mobil said it couldn't comment on the matter. Oil Search managing director Peter Botten, who was also in Singapore at a separate conference, declined to comment. Total did not comment immediately and InterOil did not respond to a request for comment. (Reporting By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
