(EnergyAsia, August 12 2014, Tuesday) — InterOil Corp hopes to advance its long-delayed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea with the appointment of a respected industry veteran as chairman in place of an early investor to follow on last year’s exit of the company’s controversial founder.

Former BG Group Plc CEO Chris Finlayson, 58, will replace Gaylen Byker to lead the Singapore-based firm’s work with France’s Total, Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s Oil Search and the PNG government to develop the gas reserves of the Elk-Antelope fields for export to Asia.

Mr Finlayson, a geologist, physicist and petroleum engineer, has described the proposed development of Elk-Antelope as “one of the most significant upstream LNG projects globally.” He has more than 37 years’ experience leading exploration and production ventures in Russia, Asia, Nigeria and Europe including the North Sea with BG Group and Shell, overseeing production of more than one million barrels of oil equivalent a day and directing several major capital projects.

After a period of shareholder unease and management clashes with the PNG government, the company replaced founder Phil E. Mulacek with Mr Byker, an InterOil board director since 1997, as chairman in 2012. Mr Mulacek, who briefly remained as CEO, resigned last year, severing all ties with the New York and Port Moresby-listed company, which he helped found in the mid-1990s as an oil explorer and refiner in the Pacific Island nation.

Mr Finlayson’s appointment completes InterOil’s management overhaul in its quest for “transformation to a world-class explorer and producer”. Over the past year, it has hired a new senior management team comprising former Woodside Petroleum and BG executive Michael Hession as CEO, Jon Ozturgut as chief operating officer and Donald Spector as chief financial officer as part of an effort to repair relations with shareholders and the PNG government.

In 2011, the PNG government criticised InterOil for submitting a “small and fragmented” proposal, rather than what he called a world-class project, to develop the country’s natural gas reserves for export. After expressing concerns that InterOil had failed to appoint an “internationally reputable” company to operate the proposed project, then energy minister William Duma threatened to terminate InterOil’s role and cancel the project’s agreement.

Along with the management change, InterOil has brought in Total and Oil Search to help launch what could be PNG’s second LNG project to follow on ExxonMobil’s recently launched US$19 billion project.

Nixon Philip Duban, PNG’s Minister for Petroleum and Energy, is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the CWC Group’s LNG conference in Singapore on September 23-26.