Businesses waiting on Govt

By DALE LUMA
BUSINESSES are waiting for clear indications from the Government as to when resource projects such as the Papua LNG and Pasca A offshore oil and gas will get online.
Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Rio Fiocco said there had been talks of agreements being signed and/or close to being signed, but businesses needed a clear decision on when construction would start.
He said the projects would stimulate business confidence especially the Papua LNG in terms of spinoff businesses for the locals in line with the Government’s agenda for national content.
It was recently announced in a PNG Chamber and Mining workshop last week that the Government hoped to make announcements on outstanding projects by Sept 16, according to industry sources.
Department of Petroleum and Energy secretary David Manau said during the workshop that an agreement for the Pasca A project in Gulf was expected in the next two weeks.
“For Pasca, we have completed all the negotiations and the agreements are in its draft stage,” he said.
“As of last night (last Tuesday), in a briefing with the Prime Minister James Marape, the State negotiating team (SNT) was given until next week (this week) to sit with Twinza and complete the gas agreement for a possible NEC (National Executive Council) announcement the following week.”
For the Papua LNG project, a fiscal stability agreement was signed in February between the state and the developer Total E&P PNG Ltd.
It was announced that the front-end-engineering-design (Feed) stage of the US$12 billion (about K41.28 billion) Papua LNG project will take about two years, and another four years for the actual construction.
Managing director Jean-Marc Noiray previously said the economic benefits of the projects would be realised after the construction phase.
“We need to embark on the whole stabilisation of the project which we call the pre-Feed,” Noiray said.
“We are working hard on that.
“The Feed itself will last between 15 and 18 months, from the moment we reach the final investment decision.
“And from final investment decision to first gas, we have about four years of construction. It’s a long journey before we get to the first gas and the first revenues.”