PNGBLOGS

by Michael Joseph Passingan Petroleum Minister Jimmy Maladina reconvened the Papua LNG Development Forum at APEC Haus this week and thanked participants for their patience through what he called a period of uncertainty. Patience is the right word. What is missing is any account of why it was needed. The forum is not a courtesy. It is a mandatory requirement under the Oil and Gas Act 1988, the one statutory moment at which landowners, provincial governments and the State negotiate how benefits are divided before a Petroleum Development Licence issues. It exists because the State has a history of deciding first and consulting afterwards. This government has treated it as an obstacle to be cleared. The pattern is visible in the venue. The forum was to be held in Kerema, in the Gulf, where the gas is, Maladina personally led a delegation to inspect the market, the sports field, the secondary school and local lodges as potential sites. When Baimuru landowners raised concerns, he told th...

by M.J. PASSINGAN Jimmy (NPF Crook) Maladina issued a press statement this week assuring the nation that our Gas exports remain intact. Read Petroleum Minister Jimmy Maladina's assurance again, slowly. He does not say PNG loses nothing. He says he does not expect material impact on production or export volumes. Those are different claims, and the gap between them is where the money goes. Volumes and revenue are not the same thing. A cargo redirected is still a cargo sold, but sold to a buyer who knows the seller has just been dropped by a customer for political reasons. That is not a strong bargaining position. The Minister's own statement puts the Taiwan trade at roughly K1.5 billion for six months. If that figure is immaterial, it is odd that he cited it. Second, the seller is not the State. Taipei's CPC informed ExxonMobil, not Waigani. The contracts the Minister calls "fully intact" are commercial agreements between a joint venture and its buyers. The Gover...

by SAMSON  S. ALPHONSE Have you ever wondered about what our children (or their children) down the line will look back at our generation of citizens of this beautiful country, and our generation of leaders, and say? What verdict do you think they will pass? Just ponder on that for a while. After you have so pondered, also ask yourself what the children will think and say if we vote the current leaders back, or set up PNC Party to win and make Peter O’Neill the Prime Minister again? The next generation, and generations thereafter will desecrate our graves, and those of our current Political Leaders, and that of Peter O’Neill definitely! WHY would generations and generations of our future children do that you might ask? 1.      They would desecrate our graves because in the year 2017, we made another monumental mistake and as a nation voted PNC back into power. 2.      Because we did not learn from 7-year history of open stealing a...

by PNGI In tandem with his political career, Peter O’Neill has built an extensive business empire with interests in almost every sector of the economy and assets worth many hundreds of millions of Kina. The  Midas Touch is an in- depth investigation by  PNGi  into the Prime Minister’s business empire and how it has been interwoven with his political career. The Midas Touch is based on months of digitally assisted analysis of several thousand corporate records, hundreds of official documents and media reporting. The Midas Touch is presented in four parts: The Secret Millionaire: Inside the O’Neill Empire The Snag: Peter O’Neill Inc meets Don Sawong and Tos Barnett Lift Off: High office is good for business Contagious Good Fortune: Who else has profited? THE SECRET MILLIONAIRE: INSIDE THE O’NEILL EMPIRE At a glance –  Executive Summary Like no other contemporary political leader, US President Donald Trump has focused global attention on ...