News: STO UPDATE 1-Papua New Guinea gas project signs supply deal with BP

• BP will get about 450,000 T of LNG annually over initial 3 yrs
• That will increase to 900,000 T for a further 2 yrs

(Adds detail, comment)

Aug 17 (Reuters) - An ExxonMobil-operated gas project in Papua New Guinea has agreed a deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a unit of British oil giant BP BP.L , said Australia's Oil Search Ltd (OSH) , a partner in the development.

The agreement, starting this month, will provide BP with about 450,000 tonnes of LNG annually over an initial three-year period, rising to about 900,000 tonnes for the following two years, Oil Search said in a statement on Friday.

It did not give any value for the deal. "(The move) takes the total contracted volumes from the Project to approximately 7.5 MTPA (million tonnes per annum)", said Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten.

The agreement comes a month after Oil Search announced a similar deal with PetroChina Co Ltd 601857.SS .

The company also said that, on behalf of the project, ExxonMobil was in negotiations with several other parties over an additional 450,000 tonnes per year of supply.

Earlier this month, Oil Search resumed operations to produce oil at the Agogo Production Facility, which was knocked out by a major earthquake in Papua New Guinea in February.