PARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - TotalEnergies Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne recently spoke to Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape to discuss a planned LNG drilling project and agreed to modify the initial agreement with a slight delay, the company said on Monday.

The planned project 'will review the structure of some packages and open competition to an enlarged panel of Asian contractors', the French company said, adding that in its view, the project needed to keep working with third-party contractors.

As a consequence, the final investment decision of the Papua LNG project is now expected in 2025, the company said. (Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)