About K10bil FX on hand: PM

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
PRIME Minister James Marape says he will instruct Treasury to assist one of Papua New Guinea’s biggest fuel suppliers to have better access to foreign exchange in order to maintain a consistent supply of fuel.
Marape said there was around US$3 billion (about K10.31 billion) in foreign reserves available at the Bank of PNG (BPNG) which companies could use to do overseas purchases.
“On the issue of forex, BPNG has more foreign reserve in our bank. Today we have about US$3 billion sitting in our foreign reserve,” he said.
“Importers like Puma (Energy) should have better access to the US dollar for their purchase than it was before. But if Puma is struggling then I will get the Treasurer and his team to assist so that we don’t have a shortage of fuel in our country.”
He said this in response to questions by National Capital District governor Powes Parkop in Parliament yesterday who asked whether the Government knew about the foreign exchange (forex) issues that Puma Energy was having.
“Everyone may know that the increase in fuel price at the moment is because of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia,” Parkop said.
“My understanding is that Napa Napa (refinery outside Port Moresby) has the capacity to supply PNG and also the Pacific region. But they have a problem of accessing crude oil. Half of it or maybe three quarters of it comes from a market in Singapore. And to get crude oil, they need access to forex. My understanding is that the Napa Napa refinery had problems in accessing forex in order to purchase crude oil in Singapore.
“Is the Government working with the Napa Napa refinery to get more crude oil from Kutubu to supplement? Is there a strategy for us to get crude oil internally? Or get cheaper crude oil from the international market. From Venezuela for example?”
Marape said the Government was looking at removing excise or levies on fuel so the cost was not passed on to customers.
“For Kutubu crude, it is currently being exported. It has contracts. This is something that we have been looking at and going into the future. This was why we have been aggressive on the domestic market obligation side of gas for our country so that we move into downstream processing which was something that we have overlooked for many years.”