The Papua New Guinea Governmen has now confirmed that two liquefied natural gas projects are set to be completed in the country.
The Petroleum and Energy Minister, William Duma, says both the new Interoil deal, and the huge Exxon Mobil agreement reached earlier this month, promise big benefits for the country.
The National newspaper reports that the PNG Government and Liquid Niugini Gas Ltd, which is 52 percent owned by InterOil, yesterday signed an initial project agreement for the construction of an LNG complex to process the gas.
The agreement was signed by the acting Governor-General, Dr Allan Marat, Mr Duma, InterOil's chief executive officer and chairman, Phil Mulacek, and its executive director Christian Vinson.
The PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare says the two projects are the ideal Christmas presents for the people of Papua New Guinea.
With the project agreement in place Mr Mulacek says financing is the next thing on the list of things to do.
He says the company has a number of people interested in the financing and it will evaluate these with the Governrment and state owned Petromin, one of the key partners in the project.
Mr Duma says the initial proposal is for a 360km pipeline and LNG processing facility to be built at Napanapa for the gas to be supplied initially from Elk/Antelope gas fields in Gulf province.
