Puma: Forex orders doubled

The National Business
Puma Energy country general manager and director Hulala Tokome

By DALE LUMA
PUMA Energy PNG Ltd’s crude foreign exchange (FX) orders have doubled in the last six months, says country general manager and director Hulala Tokome.
Tokome told The National that this was because of the global oil price trend and lack of foreign exchange in PNG.
He said the impact of a lack of FX was also felt by other businesses with delays in FX orders to settle imports and other services.
“Between last December and May, we have seen our crude foreign exchange orders doubling due to the global oil price and also lack of foreign exchange within the market,” he said.
“Crude oil prices moving from under $40/bbl last to just under $70/bbl this year.
“We are facing a tough trend in our foreign exchange orders having a much longer period of being settled.
“The impact on the business have also been felt on non-crude orders with delayed payments for consumables, maintenance spare (parts), capital expense items and external services,” he said.
“The waiting period in banks to be allotted foreign exchange has increased even for these small orders to 12 weeks or more which constrains our operations.”
ANZ PNG managing director Mark Baker also told The National this week that while the foreign currency reserves had been relatively steady, the supply of foreign exchange to the market remained challenging for PNG’s import-dependent economy.
“This was exacerbated by the extended shutdown at Porgera (gold mine) which is a major supplier of foreign currency to the market.”
Bank of PNG (BPNG) governor Loi Bakani also told The National recently that the country’s foreign reserves were around US$2.5 billion (K8.7bil).
Bakani said foreign exchange inflows for this year were mainly from Government borrowings from overseas while outflows continue to be from Government debts servicing also from overseas.
He said the Central Bank had also been providing interventions which the commercial banks had been using to settle private sector imports.
“We intervened with US$50 million (K174mil) per month except for January 2021 which was US$100 million (K351mil),” he said.