“While it is likely that there will be just one set of infrastructure, it is quite feasible that there could be different ownership structures in individual LNG trains, as is the case, for example in Trinidad,” he said in the company’s report for the quarter ended March 31, 2007.

The company recently signed a cost-sharing agreement with ExxonMobil, Santos and Nippon Oil to carry out a detailed pre-front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a standalone LNG project based on the Hides gas field.

Botten said given Oil Search's current equity interests, it expects to have a 30% stake in any LNG development in PNG.

The company said oil production was down from 2.6 million barrels in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 2.3MMbbl for the first quarter ended March 2007 due to a planned maintenance shutdown of the central production facility at Kutubu and the Agogo production facility.

Revenue was based on liftings of 1.75MMbbl, with over 300,000bbl remaining in inventory at the end of the quarter. This underlift is expected to be removed through the course of the year, the company said.

This, along with a significant underlift due to timing of cargoes, reduced the company’s revenue by 33% to $US115.1 million.

Oil Search added that gross production from the PNG oil fields was now averaging just under 50,000 barrels of oil per day and the company remained on track to meet its production forecast of between 10.5MMbbl and 11MMbbl of oil equivalent.