Papua New Guinea: Gas project needs timely decisions, say ministers
The National, June 1
PORT MORESBY: The PNG gas project joint venture must come up with timely and prompt decisions if PNG gas is to enter the Queensland market, according to Minister for Petroleum Sir Rabbie Namaliu and his Mining counterpart Masket Iangalio.
They made the call yesterday after discussions with Australian ministers and senior company executives on issues relating to the PNG-Queensland gas pipeline project.
The two leaders said the discussions were fruitful and covered issues like ownership and financing of infrastructure, sovereign risks, financial and technical assistance to PNG to carry out work related to the project and mutual benefits for PNG, Australia and Queensland.
"We are confident that the governments of Australia and Queensland are very supportive of and will do whatever they can to ensure the success of this major project. It is at its very crucial stage and all efforts must be intensified in the next few weeks to make it a reality," Sir Rabbie and Mr Iangalio said.
They said many issues were commercial in nature and all the three governments recognised that but they also believed that the companies concerned must be reasonable in price negotiations.
"This has been a cooperative venture between the three governments and the private sector and we hope that the tremendous amount of goodwill that has been built up between government and the private sector will be taken into account by producers and buyers in their negotiations on the price of delivered gas in Queensland," the ministers said.
"We recognise that negotiations on price are a commercial issue but we want to stress that timing is vital and therefore prompt decisions are required from the joint venture and the customers if PNG gas is to enter the Queensland market at all."
On top of this, there are issues like political risk which may require government and landowner involvement in order to find solutions, they said, adding Kutubu was a world class project that has set the basis for successful development of petroleum in PNG with a real spirit of partnership.
"We expect the same spirit of cooperation to continue between the National Government, provincial governments and landowners with regard to the gas project," Sir Rabbie and Mr Iangalio said.
"The structuring of ownership in the infrastructure and financing will directly involve State owned entities, provincial governments and landowners. This is important because it establishes ownership and therefore responsibility towards safeguards of infrastructure and consistency of supply," the ministers said.
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