Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape, Minster of Petroleum, Hon. Jimmy Maladina, Ministers, Senator Hon. Tim Ayres, Australian Assistant Minister for Trade, MD’s, heads of departments, Members of Parliament, and distinguished guests, it is a pleasure to be with you today to share a few insights into the incredible first decade of the PNG LNG Project.
In addition, a particular thank you is in order for Anthony Smare, President of the PNG Chamber of Resources and Energy, as well as his Councillors and staff. Together, you truly continue to raise the bar for excellence at the PNG Investment Week conference and are delivering a fantastic product for the benefit of our industries and the nation.
As our video earlier this morning demonstrated, the success of the PNG LNG Project – Papua New Guinea’s first LNG project – is simply inspiring. Having personally served as its Vice President of Production from 2016 to 2019, I can say it stands out as a highlight of my career. To be able to return to Papua New Guinea in early 2025 in my new capacity of Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil PNG is both an honour and a privilege. I look forward to establishing meaningful relationships with you all and learning from the collective wisdom of our key stakeholders.
The PNG LNG Project is truly special…an incredible first chapter in the country’s LNG story that together we – all of us in this room today - will continue to write for years to come.
Some of Papua New Guinea’s next chapters are in fact already being written, beginning with projects like Angore which has – just a few weeks ago - reached successful completion. The largest LNG development in the country over the past decade, in its lifetime Angore will contribute a trillion cubic feet of natural gas to help keep PNG LNG producing at capacity for years to come.
P'nyang LNG, too, will have its chapter as well. With a Project Gas Agreement achieved in 2022 and a Fiscal Stability Agreement executed this year, it gives me great satisfaction to share that the P’nyang LNG co-venture partners have responded by accelerating the P’nyang LNG Project’s timeline. We have assembled teams around the world to advance its concept evaluation phase more rapidly and we expect to undertake initial ground surveys and to establish a Project office in Western Province in the coming weeks. We are now targeting pre-FEED entry in 2Q25 – years sooner than previously planned.
Ultimately, P’nyang LNG will be a project designed to promote and enhance synergies across Papua New Guinea’s other major LNG projects. My colleague Johanna Boothey will elaborate more upon that in her remarks tomorrow.
And Wildebeest – in the Eastern Fold Belt of Gulf Province – will have a chapter as well. We look forward to recommencing negotiations with the State at the earliest appropriate time toward a Gas Agreement that could help advance exploratory drilling there.
And these are just a few of the country’s next LNG chapters.
We titled our video this morning: “Together we have achieved great things.” It could have just as appropriately been titled “Together, we will continue to achieve great things.”
How can I be so confident? PNG LNG’s success is built upon an incredibly strong foundation of partnership, one which we at ExxonMobil PNG have sought to celebrate and reflect upon throughout this milestone year. Lessons learned from its first ten years can light the path for the next years of LNG development in the country – and beyond.
This morning, I intend to briefly touch upon a few of the most critical learnings of the first ten years of the PNG LNG Project. In addition, you’ll also hear perspectives directly from some of those who have been with us on this journey. If you remember just one thing from my remarks today, let it be this: Investing in Papua New Guinea’s people and professional relationships is the recipe for success in PNG.
Relationships take many forms, but they have proven so essential – so foundational – to our collective success in PNG that we must call them out as such. Our core philosophy toward relationship building in PNG has two essential characteristics: First, they must be mutually beneficial and second, we must build and invest in them for the long-term.
In our industry, the life cycle of multi-billion-dollar projects spans decades. It follows then that our relationships must also be built and strengthened over decades. Like marriages – so to speak - we are building long-term partnerships.
We apply this philosophy to all our relationships – whether it be with our co-venturers, customers, communities, suppliers or our workforce. Strong government partnerships are perhaps the most critical enabler of the success we have experienced during our first decade in PNG. We are deeply appreciative of the day-to-day support we receive from our partners across all levels of National and Provincial government and equally for the fiscal stability our agreements with the State have provided over our first decade, only further reinforcing our confidence in PNG as a major investor.
We believe operating in Papua New Guinea is a privilege and strive for our presence to positively impact Papua New Guineans. We do this by focusing on our communities, our local suppliers and our workforce – what we consider the pillars of our national content strategy – and I’ll now touch upon each of these in turn.
In addition, across our Project Impact Area – and beyond - we seek to be valued members of our communities. We engage daily to understand landowner needs, address their questions or concerns and to better understand how our presence can continue to create meaningful social development and employment opportunities. At the same time, we take the utmost care to ensure that we are operating with the highest environmental integrity, protecting our communities and Papua New Guinea’s incredible natural environment.
Together, with the National, Provincial and local level governments, our investments in infrastructure development like roads in Hela, classrooms in Komo and teacher housing in Angore, coupled with technical and vocational training and scholarships together ensure that the aspirations and dreams of this and future generations of Papua New Guineans are each day closer to being realized.
By seeking to build long-term partnerships with our communities, we enjoy a strong social license to operate that we consider among our greatest assets.
Our local suppliers – local businesses and LANCOs – have played an incredibly important role in our success. In fact, since the start of construction, we have invested more than 15-billion-kina into Papua New Guinean businesses and Landowner Companies (LANCOs).
Creating positive change for our communities and landowners doesn’t happen overnight… this too requires sustained commercial partnership.
Just as we mentor and guide our workforce to rise to global standards, we also work with our local suppliers to help them grow into companies that strengthen the competitiveness of the local industrial base, are internationally competitive, and can sustainably achieve their commercial ambitions.
One must not look any further than umbrella LANCOs such as TWL, LABA and HGDC to understand that this approach to supplier development works… as each have or will soon reach their own 15-year operational milestones. Their successes lift both their shareholders and their communities and are deserving of our recognition here today.
Their businesses continue to grow and evolve, including new partnerships and JVs that are also delivering significant value to our operations. Turra, a collaboration between HGDC and LABA, for example, is currently engaged in a major repair of our fiber optic cable, a scope of work that clearly demonstrates an evolution of LANCO scope and technical capabilities.
Finally, at ExxonMobil we are guided by our belief that the benefits associated with resource development should be shared by the people of this country. Our career-oriented approach to developing an exceptional national workforce – equipping both men and women with the skills needed to enhance their lives, as well as their futures – includes recruiting outstanding talent and supporting long-term professional development. This long-term approach to staffing and development is the final form of partnership that I’ll touch upon today.
Currently our workforce of over 3,700 is almost 90 percent Papua New Guinean… something we are immensely proud of as this level is significantly higher than not only the industry but ExxonMobil norms across the world for a project only ten years into operation.
Further to this, one third of our technicians are female… setting another global benchmark for ExxonMobil.
Through training and mentoring, our National workforce has demonstrated an ability to excel in complex and highly skilled roles… and now, a decade into operations, they have even advanced into roles across our global organisation in the United States, Singapore, and Japan. This year, we profiled their achievements internally with our staff as well as nationally on television to highlight what PNG Partnership means to our workforce.
We could not agree more – we WILL continue to grow stronger together.
In summary, community, supplier and workforce development form the three pillars of our national content strategy. Taken together, this approach has fostered a broad sense of Project ownership and pride that has underpinned the growth and success of the PNG LNG Project. Successful execution of that strategy, when coupled with investing in the development of strong relationships across all levels of government, is the roadmap for our industry’s success today, tomorrow… and for decades to come in PNG.
To close, Prime Minister Marape and Minister for Petroleum Maladina, thank you both for your continued faith in ExxonMobil. Your leadership has contributed greatly to the successes I have highlighted here today.
To the Governors of our project area provinces, our Landowners and Landowner Companies, your continued trust and collaboration has been – and continues to be - vital to the PNG LNG Project’s success.
Together, through a shared vision and with active collaboration across all levels of government – we have built a successful, globally-respected LNG industry for the nation.
Together, with that as our guide, we will now write the next chapters of LNG development in the country with world class opportunities including P’nyang LNG, Papua LNG, and Wildebeest – among others.
Thank you all for your attention and I look forward to an engaging and enlightening week with you here in Sydney.
On behalf of ExxonMobil PNG and the PNG LNG Project, we wish you all a safe and happy holiday season and a prosperous 2025.
I’ll leave you now with one short, final video that we believe demonstrates the exponential returns of your investments in PNG.