Partnership among stakeholders vital in service delivery: Mano

partnership between stakeholders is important to see benefits reach communities in resource project areas, Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) managing director Augustine Mano says.
Mano said this during the presentation of an ambulance to Samberigi Health Centre and the opening of two double classrooms at Wemi Primary and a double classroom at Don Mosely Primary in Erave, Southern Highlands.
The infrastructure was funded by MRDC’s subsidiary Petroleum Resources Gobe (PRG) Ltd.
“At Gobe, money is short, our oil is finished and that is the reality,” he said.
“Gobe’s first production was 30,000 barrels a day, that was the peak, now Gobe only produces 300 barrels a day, the construction companies out there they make more money than the oil, Gobe is gone,” Mano, who is from Samberigi, told the people during the presentation.
Oil Search Ltd’s Gobe petroleum project began first production in 1998 and was located in Erave and Gulf’s Kikori.
He said in his 12 years as head of MRDC, the company built its value to K6.5 billion from the K600 million worth when it started.
Mano said the ambulances and infrastructures were funded by PRG.
“This will not stop, big cry is for roads and communication, if there is no road, a classroom that would have cost K100,000 to build will cost K200,000,” he said.
“Next year there will be a communication tower, we will talk with Digicel, we want to make that happen.”
Gobe is Papua New Guinea’s second oil development after the Kutubu project.
Oil was first discovered in the area in 1990s, a petroleum development licence was granted in December 1996 and the Gobe oil project is located in PDL 3 and 4, the first unitised petroleum project in the country.
PRG Ltd was incorporated under the Companies Act on Jan 28, 1997, to acquire local landowner’s equity interest in the Gobe petroleum project.
It manages two per cent equity in the Gobe petroleum project on behalf of the project landowners in Southern Highlands.
PRG falls under this mandate, and as manager and agent of PRG, MRDC manages, controls and runs all PRG’s corporate, financial investments and other affairs under a management agreement.