Australia’s Santos STO.AX said on Friday it had agreed to extend the exclusivity period until April next year for Kumul Petroleum’s deal to buy a 5% stake in PNG liquefied natural gas project from Santos.

In September, Santos received a $1.1 billion binding offer from Papua New Guinea’s state-owned Kumul Petroleum for its interest in the project.

The deal would boost Kumul’s stake in the country’s biggest resources project to 22.8%.

The exclusivity period, which was initially open until the end of December, has been extended to April 30, Santos said in a statement to the bourse.

Earlier this month, Kumul said it was in talks with Australia’s export credit agency to help fund the acquisition of the project.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)