Hamilton will now step down as president of InterOil, and he has been nominated by the company as the new chief executive of PNG LNG. The move is yet to be ratified by InterOil’s partners in PNG LNG, US-based financial house Merrill Lynch and Clarion Finanz AG.
The announcement that Hamilton has been put forward to head PNG LNG came less than 24 hours after Oil Search announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with British gas giant, the BG Group, to investigate a proposed LNG development for the company.
William Jasper III will replace Hamilton as InterOil president and chief operating officer. Jasper spent 33 years with Chevron Pipe Line Company USA. Current director and former COO Christian Vinson will focus on corporate development and government relations in PNG.
“These recent changes are as a result of the accelerated program towards further optimisation at the refinery and development of our LNG facility in PNG,” chief executive Phil Mulacek said.
InterOil owns PNG’s only oil refinery, NapaNapa, and said the proposed LNG facility would be located adjacent to the existing refinery in Port Moresby.
The company is currently assessing the extent of a possible commercial gas discovery known as Elk-1 and located in the eastern Papuan basin. Mulacek has previously described Elk-1 as a huge well, possibly providing enough gas to supply an LNG facility outright.
InterOil's pre-front end engineering and design work has generated a preliminary capital cost estimate of around $US3 billion for a plant to be located in Port Moresby with the company’s existing infrastructure said to deliver a reduction in capital costs of around $1 billion.
InterOil has been working on its LNG development plan for almost four years, according to Mulacek, who says the plant could even be completed before the much-hyped, and now tenuous-looking, PNG-Queensland pipeline project.
However, Oil Search is also now seriously looking at LNG. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with UK-based, gas-focused company BG International to investigate a proposed liquefied natural gas development in PNG.
Oil Search said the studies would focus on areas outside the licences that contain the gas currently dedicated to the PNG Gas project, which represents around 40% of the company's PNG gas reserves.
Managing director Peter Botten said the company was considering a two-train development drawing on 6 trillion cubic feet of gas. He added that the preliminary research had indicated a likely capital expenditure of around $US250-500 per tonne of LNG capacity.
