WAECA's Patrick Talu is Environmental reporter of the year

One of WAECA's sons, Patrick Talu has been awarded the environmental reporter of the year. The humble and hard working young man from Warakamb won the Environmental reporter of the year.
Congrats, Pat. Keep up the good work and continue to be humble and work hard.

Second PNG LNG approved!

AAP

Papua New Guinea's national executive council has approved the InterOil liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

"The InterOil-led project will contribute significantly to the economic prosperity of the Gulf Province and Papua New Guinea in general," Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare said in a statement on Thursday.

InterOil is headquartered in Cairns and has offices in Port Moresby and Houston, Texas.

Petromin PNG Holdings, which manages the state's oil and gas projects and falls under the prime minister's jurisdiction, will take up a 22.5 per cent interest in the project.

"I am very pleased that cabinet has given InterOil and Petromin the green light to develop a second LNG project for the country after two years of detailed negotiations between the state and the project developer," Sir Michael said.

The project targets a $7 billion LNG facility capable of producing approximately four million tonnes of LNG per year, a statement from InterOil says.

The first production of liquefied natural gas is expected at the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015.

Exxon hands out PNG LNG contracts

from PNN
The key contract for the 6.6 million tonne per annum liquefied natural gas plant was awarded to Japanese companies Chiyoda Corporation and JGC Corporation.

This includes the facilities for processing and treating natural gas, liquefaction, storage and loading.

ExxonMobil also awarded the contract for the Hides gas conditioning plant to a joint venture between CBI and Clough, while a JV between McConnell Dowell Constructors and Consolidated Contractors Group Offshore won the contract for support infrastructure.

The support contract includes the construction of a new airfield at Komo, the site of the project airport; about 21km of upgraded track with two new bridges capable of heavy load transport between Hides and the airfield; about 21km of fibre-optic cable along the same route; and the upgrading of up to 20km of road to support airfield construction.

SPIECAPAG will provide the project with onshore pipelines and infrastructure while Saipem won the contract for the offshore pipeline.

All contracts are pending completion of project sales and purchase agreements with buyers as well as finalisation of financing arrangements with lenders.

Meanwhile, Oil Search, which operates the gas fields that will feed the project, has awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and management contract to Aker Solutions for the construction of all facilities to deliver gas from the existing oil fields to the LNG Project.

The PNG LNG project is expected to cost about $US15 billion ($A16.6 billion) and will have a production capacity of 6.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

PNG LNG gets approval

Partners of the PNG LNG Project, today announced that the development of the project will proceed.
Peter Graham, managing director of Esso Highlands, said the project has received
approval by the co-venturers, pending completion of sales and purchase agreements with
LNG buyers and finalization of financing arrangements with lenders, expected to be
concluded by early 2010.
With this decision to proceed, the Papua New Guinea government and landowner
nominees have joined the project as equity participants.
"We are pleased to achieve the important milestone of securing the approval of the coventurers
to move ahead with our project," said Graham said during a ceremony at the
National Parliament House. "Pending completion of these sales and financing
arrangements, significant project activity will commence in 2010.” The project expects to
release information shortly regarding the approval of engineering, procurement and
construction contracts.
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare presided over the ceremony, attended by Papua New
Guinea government ministers and governors. Somare said, “ExxonMobil and our other
private sector development partners have shown significant confidence in our nation.
Cooperation between the public and private sectors will create value for the Papua New
Guinea society as a whole and grow our economy in the future.”
The project co-venturers will continue to work with the Independent State of Papua New
Guinea and lenders to secure all the necessary environmental and social program
approvals which focus on specific management plans associated with the implementation
of facilities.
The PNG LNG Project is an integrated development that includes gas production and
processing facilities, onshore and offshore pipelines and liquefaction facilities with the
capacity of 6.6 million tons per year. Participating interests include affiliates of Exxon
Mobil Corporation (including Esso Highlands Limited as operator, 33.2 percent), Oil
Search Limited (29.0 percent), Independent Public Business Corporation (PNG
Government, 16.6 percent), Santos (13.5 percent), Nippon Oil (4.7 percent), Mineral
Resources Development Company (PNG landowners, 2.8 percent) and Petromin PNG
Holdings Limited (0.2 percent).
Media Contact: Miles Shaw
Phone: + (675) 323-2133 Email: miles.j.shaw@exxonmobil.com

PNG LNG FID Delayed - Breaking news.

The PNG LNG FID has been delayed according to Project Finance Internationa (PFI). No reason(s) have been given by Exon mobil. Won't happen as planned for Dec 8. It will not happen before the end of this month. That means, after the end of this month, which could mean Feb or Jan. Look up this site for more details.

( PNG LNG FID delayed
The final investment decision for the US$15bn PNG LNG project that was scheduled for December 8 will now not be made before the end of the month. ExxonMobil did not provide an explanation but it is believed that the ECA funding agreements are still not in place.

The bank debt, however, is progressing better, with some potential lenders to the covered and uncovered tranches of the project debt having their allocations scaled back to some extent. The banking group consists of around 15 MLAs

Comment.
It was known for some time within the inner circles that the FID will not happen until about February 2010. Dec 8 was set to rush through land owner benefits agreements and fool the land owners.
Tangible benefits must be seen in the form of lasting infrastructure, schools, health facilities, agriculture, tourism, sports and religion and art and so on.

Royalties alone is not good enough. The people must be educated about such. Comments welcome