PNG LNG: What could Papua New Guinea's pipeline project bring?

Papua New Guinea’s pipeline to change

OCTOBER WILL BE be a big month for Papua New Guinea. It doesn’t sound much on paper: it’s the deadline for the final investment decision on a liquefied natural gas and pipeline project. But it’s a project that will change the country dramatically – economically and socially. In fact, it’s hard to think of another example anywhere in the world where so much, good and bad, might depend on a single investment decision.

The project is known as PNG LNG, and it is an attempt to commercialize undeveloped petroleum and gas resources in the highlands and western provinces of Papua New Guinea. The gas has to pass through a 470-kilometre pipeline across rugged terrain to a liquefied natural gas facility 20 kilometres outside Port Moresby, the capital, for liquefaction. Once there, about 6.3 million tonnes...