Dept head pushes for advisory board

THE Department of Petroleum and Energy will ensure the Petroleum Advisory Board (PAB) is set up and funded this year, an official says.
Secretary David Manau said the petroleum industry had been concerned that the turnover time for the PAB process for licence application and document processing was very lengthy.
“At the moment, the DPE officers have PAB matters to handle apart from their normal duties and therefore attention and priorities are not fully focused on PAB documentation and processing,” Manau said.
“The PAB Secretariat will be fully staffed and committed to PAB only.
“Reports, data compilation, presentations, meetings, organisation will be coordinated by the Secretariat.
“The current procedure is that PAB members rely on documentation provided during the meetings to make deliberations.
“However, if a technical information is not clear or is missing, the agenda gets postponed.
“ And this delay may take very long when a PAB operates without a Secretariat.
“This is a big concern for the industry when they do not understand what is happening to their applications or submissions and the prolonged delays.
“As a matter of improvement, we will make provision to inform a particular licensee or applicant that its matter is on the agenda for what particular PAB date and time.
“And as a requirement, that person or entity must have all the technical information ready, in the event that it is needed for some specific clarification.
“In that manner, that specific agenda is dealt with there and then at the PAB and this will cut out the delays.”