The company overcame initial scepticism of Papua New Guinea and is proving up the potential of the project through close cooperation with contractors.

"We believed that there was 1 billion barrels of hydrocarbon potential in PNG," Mulacek told the Papua New Guinea Mining and Petroleum Investment Conference.

"We were wrong. There is much more than this."

InterOil believes the Antelope-1 well clearly confirms the gas resource potential sufficient to proceed with plans to build a liquid nitrogen gas plant on company land next to the InterOil refinery, he said.

Antelope-1 and previous wells have confirmed over 120% of full capacity, estimated at 500 million cubic feet per day, for the first proposed LNG train.

InterOil is undertaking feasibility studies with a view to developing early cash flow by stripping the condensate from the gas and re-injecting the gas back into the Elk and Antelope structures.

The goal is to sell the condensate early and have the gas for the LNG facility, Mulacek said.

The LNG facility, which is being reviewed for final investment decision, will utilise the recently discovered gas resource at the Elk/Antelope gas field.

The gas will be transported from the field to Napa Napa near Port Moresby by pipeline, a distance of 350 kilometres, where it will be processed at the proposed LNG plant adjacent to the InterOil refinery and then exported to international markets.

Much of the proposed plant development is being organised by InterOil's downstream partners; however, the InterOil upstream division supported by expert consultants will independently develop the Elk/Antelope gas field and transport raw gas to a proposed compressor station on the bank of the Purari River.

This project - the Elk/Antelope gas field development, pipeline to the Compressor Station and related infrastructure project - is the subject of a petroleum development license application, an environmental impact statement and environmental permit application.

"We work with as many PNG nationals as possible," Mulacek said. "It has helped us maintain our schedules."