Papua New Guinea's second liquefied natural gas project has taken a big leap forward with a heads of agreement signed by InterOil Corporation and the Energy World Corporation in New York this week.
The Post Courier newspaper says the signing, which was witnessed by the Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, was a significant step forward as InterOil can now complete the front end engineering and design stage and then conclude the financing plans in the next couple of months.
PNG's InterOil has partnered with Energy World Corporation, an Australian listed company, which has vast experience in developing LNG in Indonesia and Australia.
Interoil's Elk/Antelope structure is large enough for several LNG facilities and EWC is among the first companies to sign a strategic partnership with it to develop the project.
Sir Michael says he's delighted that InterOil will develop the condensate stripping plant partnership with Mitsui and the LNG project at the same time.
He says these developments mean he'll leave politics in 2012 satisfied in the knowledge that PNG's economic future is now on a prosperous path.
