GDANSK (Sept 7): TotalEnergies will sell a 9.1% stake in the Papua LNG joint venture to its partners and hand the project's operatorship to ExxonMobil, the French energy major said on Monday.

The company, which co-owns the project with Exxon, Santos, Kumul Petroleum/MRDC and ENEOS Xplora, said it would sell shares to its partners in proportion to their existing interests, while retaining a 20% stake. It did not provide a sale price.

TotalEnergies also said it was nearing a final investment decision on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, with contractual and commercial hurdles having now been cleared. CEO Patrick Pouyanné had said in July that he was targeting a final decision by November.

Papua LNG is part of TotalEnergies' portfolio of projects to grow lower-cost LNG supplies, producing 5.6 million metric tons per year (Mtpa) from the Elk and Antelope fields in Papua New Guinea's Gulf Province, mainly for Asian buyers.

Exxon, which already runs the neighbouring PNG LNG plant, will take over as the operator of the project. TotalEnergies' offtake share, which gives it access to 1.5 Mtpa of LNG for its portfolio, remains unchanged.

TotalEnergies has completed the tendering process for engineering, procurement and construction work for the project, it said, with contracts now pending its partners' approval.

Close to US$4 billion has been achieved in cost savings since 2024 through rebidding those contracts and optimising the project design, bringing capital spending down to around US$14 billion, it added.

The companies have also finalised an amended gas agreement with Papua New Guinea's government and set up an LNG marketing joint venture with Kumul Petroleum to sell 2.4 Mtpa of the project's 5.6 Mtpa output.

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