Law passed to enable project

The National National
From left: Southern Highlands Governor William Powi, Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas, Prime Minister James Marape, Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey and Communication and Information Technology Minister Timothy Masiu at Parliament after yesterday’s session. – Nationalpic by KENNEDY BANI

THE Oil and Gas (P’nyang LNG Project) (Amendment) Bill 2021 to amend the Oil and Gas Act (1998) was passed yesterday in Parliament to allow for the development of the P’nyang gas project in Western.
Petroleum Minister Kerenga Kua said discussions on the project agreement would be concluded this month to ensure partners moved on to the next stage of the project’s development.
“The amendment to the Oil and Gas Act (1998) is for the State and the project participants to execute a gas agreement of the kind that was contemplated by the heads of agreement executed by the State and ExxonMobil on Sept 28, which among other things, provides for the processing of the application of a petroleum development licence for P’nyang gas project to be unaffected by the amendment of the Oil and Gas Act 2020, number 11 of 2020,” Kua said.
“The bill concerns P’nyang LNG project alone and any application for the petroleum development licence for the P’nyang LNG project.”