Petromin granted licence to hunt oil

 By ANCILLA WRAKUALE

PETROMIN PNG Holdings, the state’s nominee in mineral, oil and gas projects, was yesterday awarded with the petroleum prospecting licence (PPL) 345 for the New Ireland basin.

The licence was formally handed over by Minister for Petroleum and Energy William Duma to Petromin executive director and chief executive Joshua Kalinoe.

The event was witnessed by various management members at the Petromin Haus in Port Moresby.

Duma said he was proud to see Petromin come this far in reaching the achievement.

He said the achievement has marked another milestone for the only national company responsible for managing the country’s natural resources.

“It was an historic event and for the first time after independence, our very own oil and gas company was competing with other international companies on its own merit to acquire the contracting licence,” Duma said.

He  congratulated Kalinoe on behalf of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare for his role in bringing Petromin this far and assured Petromin of his support.

“I stand ready to support petroleum developments in PNG,” Duma added.

Meanwhile, Kalinoe said that they are looking at doing things a little bit differently by establishing groundwork for thorough study of the geology of the area.

He said a lot of study was concentrated on off-shore areas and Petromin was among the few to conduct on-shore exploration.