Puma Energy has replied to Bank of Papua New Guinea’s (BPNG) 13 queries in relation to supply of foreign exchange (FX), but is still in court in a BPNG initiated court proceeding.
Prime Minister James Marape said this resulted in Puma stopping its supply of aviation gasoline to Air Niugini, because it could not get the required FX to bring in fuel, resulting in all flights being cancelled last Thursday.
Marape said this on Sunday (January 8, 2022) after meeting with top executives of Puma Energy in Singapore.
He was accompanied by Petroleum and Energy Minister, Kerenga Kua and State-Solicitor Daniel Ropalgarea.
“I made it clear at the meeting that there must never again be a repeat of such a situation in Papua New Guinea, where there is no supply of fuel to planes and ships, and that Puma and BPNG must resolve all issues,” Marape said.
“I have asked Puma to come to a meeting with BPNG, with the State as arbitrator, for outstanding issues to be resolved.
“When we return from Singapore, we will hold a meeting with the Central Bank, to find out exactly what are the issues with Puma so there is never again a repeat of what happened last Thursday.”
Marape said BPNG had raised 13 issues against Puma, which the company had already responded to last September, however, BPNG twice took the company off the FX registry resulting in two stoppages of avgas to Air Niugini.
“This is not just a Puma-Central Bank issue, but one of FX required by our business community, especially for the import of products into PNG.
“This issue points us to the fact that we need to relook at how Central Bank regulates and controls flow of FX to commercial banks and traders. We want ease of forex to our business community.”