AFP - US-based energy giant Exxon Mobil said Saturday it had finalised financing and sales agreements for its 15 billion US dollar gas project in Papua New Guinea and was ready to begin construction.

"Sales and purchase agreements with buyers and financing arrangements with lenders are now complete and the project is proceeding with full execution," Exxon said in a statement.

"First deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2014, following a construction period of about four years," it added.

The massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, potentially the largest ever such deal for the impoverished Pacific country, will supply four major customers in Taiwan, Japan and China and is estimated to have a 30-year life.

It will include gas production and processing facilities in PNG's Southern Highlands and Western Provinces, liquefication and storage facilities on the Gulf of Papua and more than 700 kilometres (450 miles) of pipelines.

ExxonMobil holds a 33.2 percent stake in the project with partners Oil Search Ltd (29 percent), the PNG government (16.6 percent), Santos Ltd (13.5 percent), Nippon Oil Corp (4.7 percent) and local landowners (2.8 percent).

The partners would supply some of the initial outlay, with the rest to come from commercial sources and export credit agencies in Australia, the United States, Japan, China and Italy.

"The project team successfully negotiated this complex transaction for the project in a very difficult financial market," said Peter Graham, managing director of Exxon's PNG subsidiary Esso Highlands.

Analysts estimate the project could double PNG's income.