In this exclusive interview, Arnaud Berthet, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP PNG, provides an update on key components of the Papua LNG project to Business Advantage PNG, and provides clarity around the expected timeline to a final investment decision.

Herd Base on the Purari River in Gulf Province, the central hub for the Papua LNG early works. Credit: TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies and its joint venture partners in the Papua LNG project are set to achieve a key milestone towards a final investment decision (FID), with engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts to be finalised in the coming weeks, according to the company’s Papua New Guinea country head.

“We have made incredible efforts to get back to a more acceptable figure in terms of capex. We are clarifying the offers, and we should be ready to award around mid-November,” Arnaud Berthet, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP PNG, tells Business Advantage PNG.

“We are building the conditions for FID, which is now in line of sight.”

Papua LNG had been expected to reach FID in early 2024, but that decision was postponed after EPC firms proposed capital expenditure of about US$18 billion — a figure Berthet called “absolutely unacceptable” in a previous interview with Business Advantage PNG.

Prime Minister James Marape said recently that the project partners are targeting costs closer to US$14 billion.

Development forum

A final investment decision will depend not only on commercial readiness but also on several key regulatory steps. Chief among them is the development forum, to be organised by the newly established National Petroleum Authority, which will bring together the project participants, the State, landowners and local-level governments (LLGs) to agree on benefit-sharing arrangements.

Berthet says the forum, originally scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025, has been delayed to avoid a clash with local level government (LLG) elections on 27 October.

“From my last discussions with the authorities, it appears the plan now is to have the development forum in Q1, 2026,” he says.

“Without the development forum, we cannot take the FID, as per the law,” he adds, “so this is clearly one of the fundamental bricks on our way to FID.”

Environmental permit

In a major milestone for the venture, the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) recently granted Level 3 environmental permits for both the upstream and downstream components of the project.

The permit is one of four elements required before Papua LNG can obtain a Petroleum Development Licence, alongside the development forum, the project’s development scheme (which requires approval from the Ministry of Petroleum), and a national content plan, which has already been submitted to regulators.

Although the permit marks a watershed moment, Berthet says engagement with CEPA will remain ongoing.

“The environmental permit is a living thing,” he says. “You can amend it, depending on the variation of your concept. But it’s easier to amend an existing permit than to get it [in the first place].”

Other key steps

Beyond regulatory approvals, TotalEnergies is advancing what Berthet calls the “quite complex” financing arrangements for the project.

“We are meeting very regularly with the banks and the export credit agencies,” he says. “In the weeks or months to come, we are concluding the necessary due diligences for the lenders to be comfortable enough to go in front of their boards and ask for money for the project.”

At the same time, the company is finalising long-term sales agreements with prospective Asian LNG buyers.

“There’s still appetite for gas coming from PNG, which is perfectly located to serve the Asian markets,” Berthet says. “The buyers are still interested. Gas is the energy of transition.”

After years of preparation, Berthet says all major workstreams – technical, financial and regulatory – are beginning to align.

“All the pieces of the puzzle are assembling today,” he says. “We are building the conditions for FID, which is now in line of sight.”