Local firm producing medical oxygen to aid health sector

A LOCAL company which produces industrial gas has also started to process medical oxygen to support Papua New Guinea’s health system.
Motukea Gas Company Ltd managing director Richard Foo said the company plant outside Port Moresby could produce up to 400 cylinders of medical gas a day.
He said this would address the current demand for oxygen in the country with the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on the health system.
The company donated its first 200 cylinders of medical oxygen to the Government which came with regulators, hoses and face masks, all valued at K700,000.
The managing director said used cylinders could be brought back to be refilled.
Foo said the market for industrial gas decreased by 50 per cent over the last several years and this had forced the company to diversify its product.
“We sell the full range of industrial gas, industrial gas are mainly for use in the industry, gas used for cutting steel, used to welding aluminium and stainless steel, we also have nitrogen and various types of gases,” he said.
“The market now in Papua New Guinea has been very slow, we are selling less (gas) than we were 10 years ago, it is very bad.
“Our business is 50 per cent down from what we are normally doing, even the mining, our supply has also slow down, our business depends on industry so if industry is slow then the market is slow, we also slow down.”
Foo said the company supplied gas products domestically for mine sites such as Ok Tedi and shipping yards.