PNG LNG Restarts Ahead of Schedule

The Papua New Guinea LNG facility has restarted production well ahead of schedule after being shut due to an earthquake in late February, the project’s major stake holding companies said April 13.

It was closed February 26 due to a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the PNG Highlands and operator ExxonMobil had scheduled the restart for early May – so eight weeks from March 5.

“Resuming LNG production ahead of our projected eight-week timeframe is a significant achievement for ExxonMobil, our joint-venture partners and our customers,” said Neil W Duffin, president of ExxonMobil Production, the supermajor's upstream division. One train at the two-train facility is currently operating with the second expected to restart as production increases over time, it said.

During the period that production was shut-in, ExxonMobil was able to complete unrelated maintenance scheduled for later in 2018 to allow for more efficient operations in the months ahead, it added.

That maintenance work had previously been scheduled for April and October, project partner Santos said. 

Planned modifications to the Hides Gas Conditioning Plant, including some work tying in the Angore gas field, were also brought forward, Oil Search added.

PNG LNG is operated by ExxonMobil (33.2%), with Santos (13.5%), National Petroleum Company of PNG (16.8%), JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration Company (4.7%), Mineral Resources Development (2.8%), and Oil Search (29%) holding interests in the project. Its current nameplate capacity is 6.9mn metric tons per year but it has the ability to operate in excess of 8.5mn metric tons per year.