Boston, MA 04/11/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Boston, MA 04/11/2014 (wallstreetpr) – U.S. oil and gas major Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) has announced that its much delayed and much anticipated Papua New Guinea (PNG) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project would be ready for supporting export related demand of LNG from the middle of 2014.
The Papua New Guinea project for all the talks of delay is actually on track and is expected to start operations ahead of schedule and less than its $19 billion budgeted cost. The project has also led to beginning of gas conditioning plant in Papua New Guniea’s highlands. The gas is drilled at a site 292 kilometer on shore and bought by a pipeline to the plant. The first of the two liquifying units of the PNG plant are also ready to go live.
The plant is expected to begin shipping its first set of cargoes, from middle of the year as against the previously anticipated timeline of October 2014. The project is expected to go fully operational by the year end.
The project which has been under construction for the last five years has had to face tough climatic conditions which included one of the worst recorded combinations of wet weather, sheer terrain and also issues with local residents. These factors resulted in slack with respect to progress of work and it was also estimated that there would be significant escalation in costs, which according to some estimates would have been 25% over its original budget of $15 billion.
The most difficult part of the entire project according to experts has been the laying down of a high pressure gas pipeline 1 meter above ground but which had to be later camoflauged with dirt for the purpose of safety and security.
The terminal is expected to begin transporting to Japanese, Chinese or Taiwanese customers, who between them have contracted to take 95% of the plant’s 6.9 million tons per annum gas production.
