PORT MORESBY, New Guinea — TotalEnergies plans to drill its first deepwater exploration well next year on PPL 576 offshore Papua New Guinea, according to Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné.
He revealed the news during discussions with PNG Prime Minister James Marape concerning the Papua LNG project.
Pouyanné reaffirmed that TotalEnergies (as operator) and partners Exxon Mobil, Santos and JX Nippon are committed to the project.
However, more work lies ahead on commercially viable EPC contracts before the partners can reach FID, which is now expected in 2025. They plan to review the structure of some of the packages and open the competition to a wider group of Asian contractors.
