Haiveta wants Twinza project to proceed

The Gulf Governor has asked the National Government to proceed with the development of the Pasca A4 offshore gas project if the Gas Template Agreement or GTA is not ready.

Governor Chris Haiveta said currently the country and his province need the investment and he wants the project to begin soon.

He made the comments following the flaring of the Pasca A4 well yesterday.

Congratulating Twinza on its milestone, Haiveta urged the government to move forward with the project even if the GTA is not ready.

The GTA spells out the equity participation and benefit sharing arrangement of the project.

“I would urge Minister and the National Government if the gas template agreement is not ready then let’s proceed with this development under the existing regime and move it forward.

“The country certainly needs investment, my province needs all the help it can get and I believe going forward Twinza, myself and the National Government will work in a meaningful way to bring this to production in the timeframe that (Twinza MD) Huw has outlined,” said Haiveta.

Moving forward, Haiveta said his province has seen and learned from the experience of the PNG LNG project.

And they are keen to have robust discussions with Twinza Oil and the Government on downstream processing and future project agreements.

“We’ll be having robust discussions both with the state and of course Twinza on DMO, Domestic Market Obligation, which I would like to thank Twinza for making a principal commitment to support and of course in the gas agreement, sitting down with both the Minister and Twinza to work out how we are going to be involved in a meaningful way.

“That would involve equity and revenue sharing, taxation of course, development levy, royalties and so forth,” he said.

Meanwhile Minister for Petroleum, Fabian Pok, says the GTA is ready to be presented to Parliament.

“We have a gas template agreement ready to be presented to parliament that will be the template that will be used for future gas projects and the financial arrangements and so forth.

“Apart from the gas template, we have another, what is called the domestic market obligation where part of the gas will be available for domestic use, which is currently not part of the PNG LNG agreement.

“That is why we cannot go onto downstream processing,” said Minister Pok.

(Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta)

Author: 
Cedric Patjole