Maurbeni recently acquired a 21% stake of Merlin Petroleum, which owns a 4.7% stake of the PNG LNG project - equating to a 0.99% stake of PNG LNG.

Marubeni is Japan's largest grain-trading company but has also been active in petroleum exploration and production for more than 20 years.

PNG LNG is scheduled to start producing from 2014 and is expected to deliver more than 9 trillion cubic feet of gas over its 30-year life and more than 200 million barrels of associated liquids.

Partners in PNG LNG are ExxonMobil (33.2%), Oil Search (29%), the Papua New Guinea government (16.6%), Santos (13.5%), Merlin Petroleum (4.7%), landowner-enterprise Minerals Resource Development Company (2.8%) and Petromin (0.2%).