(AGL) secured a long-term agreement to purchase 1,500 petajoules of gas over 20 years, starting in 2009. Project partners have total commitments for 220 petajoules/yr, above the threshold demand of 200 petajoules/yr, in order to proceed with their plans. AGL also reached an agreement with project participant Oil Search Ltd. to take a 10% equity interest in the project for $300 million. AGL already is in a partnership with Malaysian oil firm Petronas as preferred developer in the $19-million programme to design and construct the pipeline, which will deliver gas from Kutubu and Hides fields in the central Papua New Guinea highlands. AGL will purchase the gas over a 20-year period for $4.5 billion to supply its eastern Australian network, which includes more than 3 million customers. The project moved to the front-end engineering and development stage in late 2004, and the partners expect to make a final investment decision during second half 2006. With AGL's participation in the upstream side of the project, Oil Search's interest will drop to 44.2%. ExxonMobil subsidiary Melbourne-based Esso Highlands Ltd (operator) will retain 39.4%, the Papua New Guinea government and MRDC (a Papua New Guinea company representing landowner interests) 3%, and Nippon Oil of Japan 3.4%.