Wapu Sonk

Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) Managing Director, Wapu Sonk, said this during the office opening on Thursday.

Impressed with the facilities which will house the GPCO, as well as the Minister for Petroleum and Energy and potentially the Secretary for the Department,  Sonk hopes plans for the PRA’s establishment begins.

The agreement will enable KPHL to enter the active LNG market and trade LNG cargoes in to LNG market spots.

KPHL Managing Director, Wapu Sonk, and LNG Japan Limited President and CEO, Norikazu Onishi, both signed the agreement today in Port Moresby, in a separate ceremony from the Inaugural Petroleum and Energy Summit.

Sonk said the agreement allows both companies to begin work on a joint venture partnership and take advantage of spot markets.

Sonk made this remarks this afternoon when asked about the investors’ confidence in the country in a media conference in Port Moresby.

He said investors have already adjusted to the changing commodity prices.

“The fact still remains that the commodity prices will not change overnight but will take time to gradually change.

“Investors are beginning to accept the fact that the oil price will not change sooner but will take time.”

However, given the declining commodity prices, Sonk said investors have shown confidence to invest in the country.

The Games will be held from March 18 to April 1 and will bring together 21 provincial teams and 12,000 athletes and officials.

KPHL Managing Director, Wapu Sonk announced KPHL Boards endorsement of the Gold Sponsor package of K500, 000.

Sonk stated that as Papua New Guineas national Oil and Gas Company, its vision is to create value and opportunity for Papua New Guineans and this Gold sponsorship gesture is a demonstration of the company’s vision.

Sonk said this in response to statements by beneficiary groups from the Wellhead and Facilities areas of PDL 1 (Hides), PDL 2 (Kutubu), PDL 7 (Hides 4) and, PDL 8 (Angore) who have refused outright the vendor finance option.

They claimed that KPHL is riddled with a massive debt of over K9 billion and said there will be no value to the shares they acquire.

The group also said they are still awaiting a response from the Government on ‘14 Critical Demands’ which they presented to the Deputy Prime Minister, Leo Dion, on November 2016.

The option to acquire shares in Kumul Petroleum (Kroton) Limited is part of a range of benefits agreed to by the Government and set out in the Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement or UBSA for the benefits of the landowners and Provincial Governments along the footprint of the PNGLNG project.

Under the UBSA the State granted to these beneficiaries a commercial option to buy a 25.75% of the shares in Kroton No2 Limited, the special purpose company that held the States 16.75% interest in the PNG LNG Project.

Undialu said he had protested during a meeting with KPHL executives and landowners during their meet in Sydney in August after the proposal by KPHL.

“My objection was not only as landowner and MP but as Acting Governor of Hela Province at that time.

“I cannot understand why KPHL rushed to  the National Executive Council seeking for a Vender Note to raise funding from international financers?

“Why rush without seeking mandate from the Beneficiary Groups including Hela Provincial Government, the other four provincial governments and landowners?

He said the statement is completely misleading and doesn’t make sense at all.

“One has to appreciate that the financial modelling that goes behind something like this is far beyond any of these people that have put together.”

He said what the landowners have used was from a presentation he did and they have completely interpret it incorrectly.

 He said there are motives behind the landowners’ misleading statements.

Vendor Financing basically means KPHL will give the shares to the beneficiaries at no cost and will recoup the payment internally through the LNG revenue.

However, the President of the Peoples United Assembly Party Inc. (PUA) and a clan leader of landowners in the project areas of PDL 1 (Arua -Hiwa Block), PDL 8 (Block 1642 -Pureni), and PDL 9 (Humiya Block), Raymond Kuai said this arrangement will make a mockery of late Hela Governor Anderson Agiru’s decision to purchase 4.27% additional equity in the LNG Project.

After hearing all their concerns, the ministers have asked the landowners to come back and meet with them after parliament next week and within 30 days.

That is when they also plan to talk to Justice Ambeng Kandakasi to see how they can speed up the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process. This is to ensure the method of paying royalties and development levies, including the 2 percent free carry equities, are freed up for distribution.