Call to halt proposed laws

THE Government has been advised to halt any deliberations on the proposed National Energy Policy (NEP), proposed Organic Law (OL) and the Petroleum Authority (PA) and National Energy Authority (NEA) bills respectively.
National Gas Corporation Ltd (NGCL) executive chairman Alfred Kaiabe said in Port Moresby yesterday that both NEP and the OL, PAB and NEAB, in their current form encroached on standing laws on the legislated mandates and boundaries of NGCL.
NGCL is the domestic gas producer, operator and supplier in the country, under the Oil and Gas Act 1998 (OGA) (as amended).
It called for its halt until further consultation and review by stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
“The proposed OL and NEL and PAB, NEAB to a large extent, not only duplicate, but directly hijack the legislated downstream processing mandate of the NGC under the Oil and Gas Act 1998, a standing law,” Kaiabe said.
Kaiabe, a lawyer by profession and co-architect of the OGA stated that as an example, in Clause 45 of the proposed NEAB, it provided that: “Where a law or regulation governing the development and energy resource or electricity industry services is in conflict with this Act, this Act prevails over that law or regulation.”