据路透社悉尼、墨尔本报道，巴布亚新几内亚的政治动荡威胁推迟了能使该国天然气出口翻番，价值130亿美元的项目，导致该项目合作伙伴之一的石油搜索公司周一股价下跌近4%。

政治不稳定在巴布亚新几内亚并不罕见，但也没能阻碍这个资源丰富的国家采矿和能源投资，然而，未能惠及偏远地区利益的抗议一直在困扰着政府和项目所有者。

巴布亚新几内亚与道达尔的协议规定了Elk和Antelope气田的开发条件，该气田将为埃克森美孚公司运营的 PNG LNG 工厂的两个新液化天然气生产单元提供燃料。

与此同时，埃克森美孚及其合作伙伴正计划在PNG工厂建造第三个新单元，部分燃料由另一个新气田P’nyang提供。

瑞士信贷分析师Saul Kavonic表示，政治动荡可能给政府带来压力，要求其就尚未敲定的P’nyang天然气协议谈判强硬条款，并影响到有关发展成本的谈判。

在P’nyang协议上的任何拖延都可能阻碍对PNG液化天然气扩建的最终投资决定，而此次计划中的扩建使该工厂的产能增加一倍，达到每年1600万吨。

埃克森美孚及其合作伙伴曾希望在2019年中开始进行扩建的基础工程规划，并在2020年作出最终投资决定。

Kavonic表示，他们正在莫桑比克、卡塔尔、北美和澳大利亚的项目开展竞争，以便在2024年之前通过扩张生产液化天然气，填补全球液化天然气市场的预期缺口，埃克森美孚和道达尔在其他地方都有液化天然气项目，如果巴布亚新几内亚液化天然气因政治活动拖延，其他项目可以优先进行。

詹晓晶摘自路透社

原文如下：

Political disarray in Papua New Guinea rocks Oil Search shares

Political turmoil in Papua New Guinea threatened to delay a $13 billion plan to double the country’s gas exports, sending shares in one of the project’s partners, Oil Search Ltd, down nearly 4% on Monday.

Political instability is not unusual in Papua New Guinea and has not held back mining and energy investments in the resource-rich country, however protests over benefits failing to reach rural areas have dogged the government and project owners.

The deal with Total set the terms for developing the Elk and Antelope gas fields, which will feed two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) production units at the PNG LNG plant, run by ExxonMobil Corp.

At the same time, ExxonMobil and its partners are planning to build a third new unit at the PNG plant, to be partly fed by another new gas field, P’nyang.

Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said the political upheaval could put pressure on the government to negotiate tough terms for the P’nyang gas agreement, which is yet to be finalised, and affect talks on development costs.

Any delays in the P’nyang agreement could hold up a final investment decision on the PNG LNG expansion, which is set to double the plant’s capacity to 16 million tonnes a year.

ExxonMobil and its partners had hoped to begin basic engineering planning for the expansion by mid-2019 and make a final investment decision in 2020.

They are racing against projects in Mozambique, Qatar, North America and Australia to produce LNG from the expansion by 2024 to fill an expected gap in the global LNG market. ExxonMobil and Total both have LNG projects elsewhere that could take priority if PNG politics delays them, Kavonic said.