The Papua LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) project is a step closer to its construction phase after the joint venture partners and the state announced that the project has moved on to the Front- End Engineering Design (FEED) phase. The Minister for Petroleum, Kerenga Kua, when speaking during the announcement on last night at the APEC in Port Moresby by Total Energies and the government, said this project will result in good economic growth for Papua New Guinea (PNG). The minister said that the people can look forward to substantial benefits for the country that will trickle down to the people. The Papua LNG is a joint venture partnership between Total Energies as the lead developer, ExxonMobil, and Santos. The Papua LNG project, instead of developing its one supply facilities, will be using the existing ones in the PNG LNG project, hence, the joint venture partnership. Minister Kua said that the partnership in this project has also opened opportunities for state owned enterprise Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) on behalf of the state to possibly build an electric LNG train within the PNG LNG processing plant facility in the Central province. The electric train will use electricity generated from green energy instead of gas in order to minimize carbon emissions. This the minister said is a special feature of the Papua LNG project. Meanwhile, Prime Minister (PM) James Marape and his senior ministerial team, after meeting with senior executives of Total Energies, were told that the Papua LNG was on schedule. The FEED stage of the project will now move to early preparatory work and as well as the Final Investment Decisions (FID), which should happen later this year or early next year. This should see the construction phase of the project start in 2024 and the first shipment of gas from the Papua LNG to start going out in 2027.