New engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract offers have been received for the proposed 5.6mn t/yr Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea (PNG), operator TotalEnergies said, following extensive design revisions for the delayed development.
The firm is concluding the rebid phase after receiving new offers at reasonable costs, managing director of TotalEnergies EP PNG Arnaud Berthet told the PNG Resources and Energy Investment Conference in Sydney on 10 December.
TotalEnergies relaunched EPC tendering late last year after previously estimated costs were considered too high for the project to proceed.
The company expanded the contractor pool to include Chinese firms and reduced the gas pipeline diameter to 30 inches from 40 inches.
This change increased the number of vessels able to perform pipelay, Berthet said, increasing competition, while it also routed the condensate pipeline west to a new floating storage and offloading vessel, reducing pipeline length.
A final investment decision (FID) remains planned for January-March next year, in-line with previous guidance. LNG sales and purchase agreements are under negotiation, and seven export credit agencies along with more than 30 commercial banks are interested in financing the project, Berthet said.
