PM ‘running short of patience’

PRIME Minister James Marape is “running short of patience” with Twinza Oil Ltd for not talking with his administration and instead criticising the Government in the media.
Marape was referring to recent media releases by Twinza claiming that the Government was not honouring terms in the Pasca A Gas Agreement which he announced on July 13 as well as demanding the licence for the Pandora gas field.
The Prime Minister said the media releases were continuous and had painted a negative image of the country as a place to invest.
He suggested that Twinza look at the example of Barrick, whose executives had flown in from around the world for negotiations on the Porgera mine, rather than continuously attacking the PNG Government through media.
“I am running short of patience (with Twinza),” Marape said on Wednesday. “They have a funny habit of going to the media first before sitting down with the State Negotiating Team (SNT).
“I can go to the Petroleum Advisory Board next week, if they (Twinza) keep us running around like this.
“I want Twinza to get it correct: if they are serious about this project, the SNT is ready any time.
“One of the Twinza guys should jump on a plane, get into Port Moresby, and talk to us face-to-face if they feel that their local executives don’t have the mandate to make final calls.”
Marape said there were some issues that still had to be sorted out between Twinza and the SNT.
“For instance, in one of their media releases, they (Twinza) associated Pandora with Pasca,” he said.
“Get it right, Pandora is not part of Pasca, Pandora is a separate field. We’ve given our best assurance to Twinza that we want them to be the project partner in the Pasca project.
“I’ve allowed for the Petroleum Minister (Kerenga Kua) to have a handle on this.
“It’s just one or two wording issues: They (Twinza) want the wording to be this way, and our State Negotiating Team wants the wording to be done this way from what I have been advised.”