Firms ‘prepare to go elsewhere’

RESOURCE companies are prepared to take their business elsewhere if the Government decides that the extractive sector is not the way to go, says Total E & P PNG Ltd corporate affairs director Richard Kassman.
“If the State doesn’t want us to explore and extract, we will go somewhere else to explore and extract,” he said. Kassman, who is also a vice-president of the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, said recently the extractive industry understood the decision was the prerogative of the Government and would not question it.
“We, as the chamber, understand that it is the prerogative of the State, and firms within mining and petroleum sector are not going to be questioning the decision.”
Kassman said, however, it needed to be understood that the extractive industry was part of a bigger world scene and Papua New Guinea was also competing with other countries and any legislation needed to be considered carefully.
“It is a worldwide decision and it is not just about Papua New Guinea. We are in competition with other countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and within our region with the balance sheet and shareholder money to invest in our country,” he said.
“This is what we do and this is the business but if the country wants to go down this road, it must look at the contributions that the industry has made to the country.”
Kassman said the contributions of mines in the country going back as far as when the Bougainville copper mine was in production were significant and any decision and legislation needed to be done in a phased manner and analysed carefully.