OREANDA-NEWS. Papua New Guinea (PNG)-focused independent Oil Search has accepted Total as operator of the Elk-Antelope LNG project, having lost its battle to have US independent InterOil's sale of a 40.1pc stake in the project to Total declared void.

After months of wrangling and an appeal to the International Chamber of Commerce Oil Search has finally accepted Total as operator and major shareholder of the Elk-Antelope gas field in PNG. The International Chamber of Commerce last month found that Oil Search did not have pre-emptive rights over the 40.1pc stake and upheld Total's rights to form a joint venture with InterOil.

Total, like many other oil majors, has been slowing its new LNG projects amid weaker oil prices. But it said in December that it plans to start this year initial engineering work on its preferred option of a standalone LNG project based on Elk-Antelope. It aims to reach some gas sales agreements for the project this year, with binding sales and purchase agreements by 2018.

Total has said it would prefer to build a standalone LNG project on the Elk-Antelope gas fields rather than using the gas for additional production trains for the ExxonMobil-operated 6.9mn t/yr PNG LNG project. Oil Search owns about 30pc of PNG LNG and had pushed to use the additional gas to underpin extra trains at that project.

The Elk-Antelope fields hold an estimated 5.4 trillion-9 trillion ft? (150bn-250bn m?) of reserves. Oil Search owns 22.84pc of the Elk-Antelope fields and InterOil holds the remainder.