Exxon forces consolidation on Papua New Guinea’s LNG

The US firm’s deal for a stake in a second gas-export project looks like a defeat for rival operator Total. But the synergies make sense

Total looks to have relinquished a stake in its planned Papua LNG project to ExxonMobil after the US major successfully trumped an earlier takeover bid for InterOil by Oil Search, the French group's two partners in its planned Papua New Guinea gas project. It follows a similar A$11.6bn ($8.9bn) bid for Oil Search by Australia's Woodside Petroleum last year. At first sight, the tussle for Canadian-registered mid-cap InterOil appears counterintuitive in a region awash with liquefied natural gas. But the opportunity to extract significant, high-quality gas at low cost is what is driving the bids. Of prime appeal is InterOil's 36.5% interest in PNG's offshore tenement PRL 15, which includes the