The write stuff

A group of enthusiastic toddlers graduated in reading last Friday at Waigani Christian School in Port Moresby.

The 100-plus toddlers, aged four, five and six, are kindergarten students who underwent a reading readiness class to prepare them for higher grades.

Some of the toddlers who graduated last Friday.

“Reading is the key to everything,” said school founder Benjamin Mul.

“Reading is the key to knowledge and information.

“When a child reads, and he or she goes to school, it will be easy for him or her to understand.

“But if a child doesn’t read, when he or she goes to school, he or she will be confused.

“We have reading readiness classes, which prepare toddlers, aged four, five or six to read before they go up higher.”

PNG-Taiwan Alumni Association formed

A PNG –Taiwan Alumni Association has been formed to strengthen relationships between the two countries.

It is made up of Papua New Guineans who have been recipients of training in Taiwan over the years.

Uvenama Rova of the United Church has been elected as president while Janet Kaule of the National Development Bank has been elected as vice-president.

Rova, Hu and Kaule with other association members at the first meeting last Friday.

Taiwan Trade Mission representative Daniel Hu said at the first meeting last Friday that the association would help Taiwan as a growing development partner for PNG.

“Taiwan is a donor country to PNG,” he said.

“But we are different from other donors, we don’t do what we want to do, we want to do something that is needed in this country.

“So we need your input to identify those projects of mutual interest.

“That’s why I’m very happy to see that this association is formed today.

“I hope in future we can have regular meetings, formal or informal, so if you have any ideas you’re always welcome in my office.

“You represent different sectors of PNG.

“For us, we only have three people from Taiwan, so it’s hard to cover all the needs of PNG.”

Further 12 Australian Federal Police officers to arrive in PNG on Monday

A further 12 Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers  will arrive in Papua New Guinea on Monday December 9 to work alongside their counterparts to boost community policing operations in Port Moresby and Lae.

Their arrival will increase the number of AFP officers working as part of the PNG-Australia Policing Partnership to 59.

Commissioner of the Royal PNG Constabulary Toami Kulunga welcomed the news of the arrival of the additional AFP officers, saying the partnership of between the RPNGC and the AFP has been going from strength to strength.

He said many Papua New Guineans including the rank and file of the RPNGC have expressed support for the program thus far.

Head of the AFP contingent Assistant Commissioner Alan Scott, "The goal of our enhanced mission is, in partnership with the RPNGC, to continue to develop the capacity of the RPNGC to provide sustainable and quality policing to the people of PNG." 

Assistant Commissioner Scott said that the 30 AFP officers who arrived in November have been working very closely with their RPNGC colleagues.

"AFP officers have been out with local police in a number of locations across Port Moresby in the last few weeks and the feedback I have received have been very positive," Assistant Commissioner Scott said.

The deployment will see an additional 50 AFP officers in PNG by the end of this year. The AFP officers do not have policing powers in PNG, but provide advice, guidance and assistance for a range of day to day policing matters.

Specific areas which will be supported include community policing, station management and supervision, community liaison, traffic operations, criminal investigations and dealing with sexual offences.

InterOil stock collapses after agreeing to PNG gas-stake sale

Joe Carroll and James Paton

Bloomberg

 InterOil Corp. lost more than a third of its market value after agreeing to sell Total SA a majority stake in its Papua New Guinea natural gas discoveries for a price that won’t be known for at least a year.

The shares tumbled 37 percent to $55.50 at the close in New York on Saturday, the biggest decline since 2002.

InterOil will divest to Total a 61.3 percent stake in an exploration license in the South Pacific nation that includes the Elk and Antelope gas fields. The French oil producer also will acquire rights to invest in additional exploration blocks and to develop a liquefied gas export terminal, InterOil said in a statement.

InterOil priced the deal at $1.5 billion to $3.6 billion, though it won’t receive a definitive price until at least 2015, Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Inc., said in a note to clients on Saturday. “There are some elements of uncertainty/ambiguity,” still to be resolved, he said.

InterOil, which has no reserves after more than 10 years of prospecting, has been searching for a major international partner to help fund a gas-export complex since Bank of America Corp.’s Merril Lynch quit the project in 2009. InterOil said in May that it was in discussions with Exxon Mobil Corp., which is already building its own $19 billion gas terminal in the country.

LNG Decision

Total will operate the proposed LNG project, which will depend on the gas resources being certified and engineering and design work, the Paris-based company said in a statement on Saturday. InterOil said it will keep 30 percent of an LNG development.

A final investment decision to develop the fields and build an onshore liquefaction plant on the Gulf of Papua may come in 2016, it said. Total also has an option to take an interest in three other exploration licenses in the area. This comes in addition to the stakes in other offshore and onshore permits it already holds.

The planned LNG development would follow Exxon’s venture in Papua New Guinea, which is proceeding along with seven others in Australia that are estimated to cost about $180 billion. Exxon said earlier this year that it was interested in InterOil’s assets to help expand its LNG project.

Total reached a deal last year with Port Moresby-based Oil Search, which owns a 29 percent stake in the Exxon project, to explore for gas in PNG, while Royal Dutch Shell Plc said in 2011 it would look at opportunities in the country.

Gas Discovery

Elk-Antelope is one of the largest discoveries in Asia in the past two decades, InterOil Chief Executive Officer Michael Hession said in the statement. Phil Mulacek, who founded the Papua New Guinea exploration company, retired as CEO in April.

“PNG has very substantial gas resources, and this brings in a world-class LNG operator,” Tony Regan, a Singapore-based energy consultant at Tri-Zen International Inc., said today in a phone interview. “This deal will give people confidence that these reserves can now be monetized as LNG.”

Mulacek founded InterOil in the 1990s when he disassembled an Alaskan oil refinery, refurbished it in Texas and shipped it to Papua New Guinea. The refinery gave Mulacek a foothold to acquire exploration rights in the Eastern Papuan Basin.

Payments to InterOil include $613 million on the completion of the transaction, expected in the first quarter of 2014, and $112 million after a final investment decision for a new LNG plant, InterOil said. Total will pay a further $100 million after the first LNG cargo, InterOil said. Variable payments will depend on the size of the resources, estimated at 5.4 trillion to 9 trillion cubic feet of gas it said.

InterOil was advised by Credit Suisse Group AG. In its separate statement, Total said it will pay $470 million for a 42 percent interest in the PNG gas fields. The French company noted that the size of its stake may drop from 61.3 percent should a “strategic partner” acquire up to 19.3 percent interest and even further to 32.5 percent should the government join the project.

Total would pay an additional contingent payment of “approximately” $590 million, it said.

Total agrees to pay InterOil up to US$3.6 Billion in PNG LNG Deal

James Paton, ©2013 Bloomberg News

Total SA, Europe’s third-biggest oil company, agreed to buy a stake in InterOil Corp.’s assets in Papua New Guinea in a deal valued at as much asUS $3.6 billion as part of a plan to build a liquefied natural gas project.

Paris-based Total will acquire 61.3 percent of a license that includes the Elk and Antelope gas fields in Papua New Guinea and get the right to invest in further exploration blocks, InterOil said last Friday in a statement. The deal is valued at US$1.5 billion to US$3.6 billion, depending on the size of the gas resources in the region, according to the statement.

InterOil has been searching for an international partner to help fund a Papua New Guinea natural gas project since 2009 and said in May that it had started discussions with Exxon Mobil Corp. to develop the fields. Exxon is building a US$19 billion LNG project in Papua New Guinea scheduled to start in 2014 to meet rising Asian demand for the commodity.

Total will operate the proposed LNG project, which will depend on the gas resources being certified and engineering and design work, according to the statement. InterOil said it will keep a 30 percent stake in the LNG development.

Payments to InterOil include US$613 million on the completion of the transaction, expected in the first quarter of 2014, and US$112 million after a final investment decision for a new LNG plant, InterOil said. Total will pay a further US$100 million after the first LNG cargo, according to the statement. Variable payments will depend on the size of resources, it said.

InterOil is advised by Credit Suisse Group AG.

PM: PNG mourning Nelson Mandela's death

Statement from Prime Minister Peter O'Neill

The Government and People of Papua New Guinea join with me in mourning the passing of the most influential and inspirational statesmen of our time, the first democratically elected President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. President Mandela ended the cruel apartheid era in South Africa – an era during which he was unjustly and harshly imprisoned for more than two decades – and by his leadership and his example he unified a racially divided nation to create the modern, democratic and multiracial South Africa of today.
Of all his many qualities, it was perhaps his unlimited capacity for forgiveness that stands out most of all. And he especially forgave those who mistreated him most of all.
It was his absolute forgiveness of the apartheid government that imprisoned him, and treated him unjustly and harshly for so long, that laid the foundations for the transition from decades of undemocratic apartheid rule to a robust democracy in a very short period of time.
His influence for good on our World continued as strong and as wholesome as ever in his retirement from public life – and it will continue as strong as ever even after his passing, when we remember the struggles he endured, and his fellow freedom fighters endured, just to gain the freedom and democracy we all too often take for granted.
Under President Mandela’s leadership, South Africa returned to the Commonwealth of Nations, and provided ready leadership for the developing nations of the World.
We mourn his passing, but we will always be in admiration of his leadership, his courage under enormous pressure, and the wonderful inspiration he has provided for so many, for so long.
The World is a better place for the life and times of Nelson Mandela.
To his family, and to President Jacob Zuma and the People of South Africa, the Government and People of Papua New Guinea extend sincere sympathy at the passing of the founder of modern and free South Africa, and the finest statesmen of our time.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.