With a two million tonnes export deal of liquefied natural gas under wraps, ExxonMobil has moved up the gears toward signing up more customers for the Papua New Guinea LNG project.
The newspaper, The National, reports PNG will know within 27 days if ExxonMobil will proceed with the project.
The paper says all indications point to the affirmative.
After signing a preliminary sales deal with China's Sinopec last week, ExxonMobil is now into exclusive talks with four other major LNG buyers in Asia for binding sales contracts to underpin the project.
The annual production capacity for the project is 6.6 million tonnes.
The developer is now working around the clock to tie down clients for the remaining 4.6 million tonnes.