The half-island nation of Papua New Guinea has shipped its first tanker of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan. The $20 billion project by ExxonMobil PNG Ltd. has begun shipping several months ahead of schedule and is expected to produce nearly seven million tonnes of LNG a year for 30 years. The gas is pumped from wells in Papua New Guinea’s central highlands and sent through pipelines 700 kilometres to a processing plant outside the capital, Port Moresby, where it is liquefied by cooling to -161 C for shipping. When in full production, a shuttle team of six tankers will maintain constant delivery to Asia.
