Fuel firms have no means to fill gap

 ISLANDS Petroleum general manager Paul Bluett says neither his company nor Mobil will be able to supply Port Moresby with fuel in the event that Puma Energy ceases supply indefinitely.

He said that this was because of the infrastructure, including service stations in Port Moresby that Puma controlled.

Islands Petroleum does not have service stations in Port Moresby, while Mobil has a number, but fewer than Puma’s.

Bluett said fortunately that Puma had only chosen petrol in its wrangle with the Government over a K1.4 billion tax bill.

“Puma’s the biggest, you could put Mobil and us together as second, and we have Niugini Oil Company in Lae. The three of us are small compared with Puma.”

Towns and provinces outside Port Moresby will be okay with fuel supplies, Bluett said.

Bluett, whose company in partnership with Mobil, serves several towns and provinces. “Mobil is assisting us as much as possible, especially in the other towns to get petrol, so that we can continue to supply the small towns,” he told The National. “We have more presence in the small towns around PNG, not in Moresby.”

Islands Petroleum currently has presence and service stations in Northern, Milne Bay, West New Britain, East New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville and Manus.

“In Madang, Lae and Moresby, we are a reseller of Mobil products.”

“Puma is a merger of BP and Shell – their market share from before.

“Your best hope of supplying petrol to Port Moresby is Mobil service stations. But I don’t think Puma wants this situation to go on for very long. The biggest product is diesel.

“Petrol is not such a big volume product, so they (Puma) selected petrol because it’s not going to affect planes, it’s not going to affect hospitals and it’s just going to affect a certain section of the community.”