60 pros for SP Export golf

MORE than 60 professional golfers have registered to compete in this year’s South Pacific Export Golf Open from April 30 to May 3 at the Port Moresby Golf Club in Port Moresby.

Tournament director Bernie Morrisey said the increase in numbers clearly showed the popularity of this event amongst the professional ranks, and was largely due to the sponsorship of major sponsor SP Brewery.

The major sponsor has backed the event with a total commitment of K185, 000 for the second year and is also supported by a range of corporate sponsors.

“We are expecting over 190 golfers in total, including the defending champion Joshua Carmichael and last year’s runner-up Chris Taylor,” Morrisey said.

Past winners Troy Kennedy and Chris Downes will also be participating with a host of the region’s top seeded players including Brad Burns, Eddie Barr from Queensland, Heath Reed from Victoria and Richard Gallichan from New South Wales,” Morrisey added.

For only the second time in 15 years, the event will also field two Fijian players, Makesh Chand and Krishna Singh, in the biggest event of the PNG golf calendar.

Morrisey is also appealing to Port Moresby-based golfers and corporate friends of the PNG Golf Association and Port Moresby Golf Club to contact the organising committee through the Port Moresby Golf Club if they are willing to accommodate some of the professional players.

Interested golfers can contact the Port Moresby Golf Club on ph (675) 3255367 to obtain a nomination form and also confirm their eligibility to participate in the event.

Nomination forms have been sent out to all PNG golf clubs.

Insect farm closure raises concern

By MALUM NALU in The National

 

CONCERNS have been raised from within and outside PNG following the recent closure of the Insect Farming and Trading Agency (IFTA) in Bulolo, Morobe province.

IFTA was the only insect collection, farming and trading agency in PNG.

Five employees had been laid off without receiving their final entitlements while IFTA had shifted its operations to Rainforest Habitat at the University of Technology in Lae.

Operators of Rainforest Habitat, Unitech Development and Consultancy (UDC), have been tightlipped over IFTA.

British scientist Rob Small, who in 2004 did his masters thesis on insect farming in PNG, warned in a paper in 2007 that IFTA was behind on payment to village-based ranchers and collectors.

Rising international demand from collectors for the insects of PNG, in particular the endemic birdwing butterflies, has been met since 1978 by the Government-sponsored IFTA.

“Until the onset in Papua New Guinea of large-scale logging and mining in the 1990s, and a crisis of governance, IFTA was widely regarded as a conservation and development success,” Mr Small wrote in an abstract of his 2007 paper.

“However, analysis of its trading records for 1995-2002 showed that this agency is now struggling to sustain payments to village-based ranchers and collectors.

“This failure, combined with the limited number of ranchers and collectors and their restricted geographical spread, casts some doubts on this model of sustainable conservation.”

 

Peace meetings commence in Wau

Peace meetings between warring Watut and Biangai tribes began in Wau today with an indefinite liquor ban to be enforced in Wau starting tomorrow.

Schools are expected to resume next Monday after being closed since the recent violence between the two tribes in Wau.

Acting provincial administrator Patilias Gamato says the process is going to take time but the negotiating team will remain committed to ensuring that peace is restored between the warring tribes.

The negotiating team talked to the Biangais in Wau today and will talk to the Watuts in Bulolo tomorrow.

Mr Gamato called on both sides to clearly put down their demands on paper, which the team will peruse and discuss further next Saturday.

He also called on them to bring out all relevant information including court orders.

Mr Gamato stressed that both sides must list their issues properly.

The negotiating team has asked for both sides to select six representatives to meet with it.

Bulolo MP Sam Basil, meantime, called for peace and common sense to prevail.

“As leaders we will maintain our presence to ensure that the situation doesn’t get out of hand,” he said.

“As Member, I will support the peace process for law and order and peace to be restored.”

Team leader Benson Suang said: “It’s a big problem and both sides must realise that they must allow the peace process to take its course.”

Provincial police commander Peter Guiness said: “Both sides must respect the law.

“Law is law and police will enforce the rule of law.

“Police will not compromise and will do our work.”

Everything has calmed down, with business returning to normal, but the situation remains tense.

Relief supplies continue to flow through, coordinated by Morobe Mining Joint Ventures, operator of the Hidden Valley gold mine.

 

Wau situation update

Watuts and Biangais to meet peace committee

 

 Watut and Biangai tribes meet with a peace-negotiating committee in Wau and Bulolo tomorrow over the recent violence which left two people dead, several injured, houses and property destroyed, and forced the temporary shutdown of the Hidden Valley gold mine and the evacuation of employees.

The committee is headed by provincial chairman for law and order Benson Suang and comprises acting provincial administrator Patilias Gamato, Bulolo district administrator Nemsin Kibisep, provincial police commander Peter Guiness, Reverend Gedisa Okomaisa of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG and provincial legal officer Kipireng Kevere.

Bulolo MP Sam Basil will also be in attendance.

“What we will do is to meet the Biangais in Wau, and then we’ll meet the Watuts in Bulolo,” Mr Gamato said today.

“We’ve asked the leaders to bring in the grievances they have.

“We’ll talk to them separately at first, and later in the week, we’ll bring the two parties together.”

Mr Guiness today travelled ahead of other committee members to Wau.

“The situation up there is quite,” he said before leaving.

“We’ve told both tribes to lay down their arms and put together their list of demands, which they will present when they meet with authorities.”

Mr Gamato also denied widely-circulating rumours that the peace-negotiating committee would make some declarations over ownership of Wau town land

“There are rumours that this committee will make some declarations in relation to the Wau town land,” he said.

“What I want to say is that it’s not the responsibility of this committee to declare land.

“The responsibility to declare land is vested with the land court or the courts, and so what we will be basically doing is to invite both sides to provide any court documents in relation to court cases over Wau towns, or any land in relation to the mining operations at Hidden Valley.

“The peace committee will interpret the court decision and inform the relevant parties.

“We are also going to look at government files, dig out old court orders, and properly inform the people so that there is no confusion as to land ownership.”

The March 20 and 21 violence came just before Hidden Valley is to pour its first gold, and resulted in the temporary closure of the mine.

A long-standing land dispute between Biangai and Watut tribes over ownership of the 2076 hectare McAdam National Park between Wau and Bulolo came to a head as the Watuts gathered in Wau in their hundreds and staged an early morning attack on the Biangai villages.

The Biangai villages around Wau comprise of Wandumi, Kaisenik, Kwembu, Biaweng, Ilauru, Were Were and Winima while the Watut villages stretch all the way from Wau to the border with Menyamya,

A Watut man was allegedly killed recently by Biangais over a gold-bearing piece of land on the national park, which is said to have sparked the tension.

 

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures comes to the aid of Wau violence victims

Caption: Hidden Valley Gold Mine general manager Adam Wright (right) presents the K25, 000 to provincial minister for law and order Benson Suang. Picture by SIMON ANAKAPU of MMJV.

 

MMJV donates K25, 000 and logistical support

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures, operators of the Hidden Valley gold mine, has joined the list of donors providing relief for those stricken by violence in and around Wau in the Morobe province.

The company last Friday presented K25, 000 to the overseeing committee of the Wau incident at a small ceremony at the provincial disaster office in Lae.

General manager of Hidden Valley Gold Mine, Adam Wright, presented the money to committee chairman and provincial minister for law and order Benson Suang.

  In addition to the logistical support currently being provided to government and police, MMJV also pledged the services of a small general maintenance team for at least one week to assist villagers in the affected areas to at least erect temporary shelters.

“Wau is a part of the community in which we work and live” Mr Wright said.

 “While the dispute did not involve the mine, it was only right for MMJV to assist.”

  Mr Wright commended the Morobe provincial government and Bulolo MP Sam Basil for their swift response in addressing the matter, as well as police, for their professional conduct in ensuring the Hidden Valley resumed operations on Sunday, March 22, just a day after the violence between Watut and Biangai tribes in Wau.

In receiving the money, Mr Suang extended the thanks of the people of Morobe and especially of the affected people in Wau to MMJV, and pledged that the funds would be used directly in providing relief to the affected.

Representatives of the landowner Nauti, Kwembu, Winima (Nakuwi) Association including president Rex Mauri (Winima), Joel Auwi (Kwembu) and Peter Askai (Nauti) were present at the ceremony.

Mr Mauri acknowledged the return of stability to the area and urged all landowner employees to return to their posts at the mine as soon as possible.

Police confirmed they would continue their operations in Wau for some time and assured the public of their commitment to maintaining law and order in the area.

 

Enter InterOil’s ‘Pandora’s Box” via Wabo

By SUSUVE LAUMAEA*

ONE hour and 45 minutes flying time by Twin Otter aircraft due west of Port Moresby is sleepy Wabo outpost (pictured above).
It’s a place never visited with frequency by the administration of Gulf Province or by the province’s political leaders until election time when political opportunists go looking for votes from the people who live there.
Wabo’s significance to Papua New Guineans and the world at large is it being pointer on the map to the location of Papua New Guinea’s latest and biggest natural gas discovery. Wabo is the entry point to InterOil Corporation, Gulf Province and PNG’s latest “Pandora’s Box” – the massive 382 Million Cubic Feet of Natural Gas per day (MMcfd) Antelope-1 natural gas well with 5,000 barrels of gas condensate per day (BCPD) which translates to 68,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Prime Minister grand Chief Sir Michael Somare and spouse Lady Veronica Bura Somare and their eldest children daughter Betha and son Sana made a rare appearance as PNG’s First Family at the head of bevy of PNG VIPs, national international corporate heavies and a strong media contingent in this Gulf Province backwater on Monday, March 2, 2009 where Sir Michael flowed and flared the awesome Antelope-1 discovery.
It’s a record PNG and Southern Hemisphere vertical find of its kind for the last 20 years in the Asia-Pacific region.
Wabo is a makeshift station in the upper reaches of the Purari River in Gulf Province and is the only inhabited locality.
Further downstream is InterOil’s supplies staging camp and barge ramp which is about one hour away if one motored down the river in a banana boat dinghy powered by a 40 horsepower engine.
Wabo is an important destination for emerging PNG-based energy house InterOil Corporation – the Canada-registered vertically integrated oil and gas Company that calls Papua New Guinea home.
Wabo is also location of the nearest airfield where chartered short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft land to offload InterOil’s exploration, drill and rig staff and the occasional VIP passengers who then hop onto waiting helicopters for the short but scenic 10 minute shuttle flight to the company’s Elk and Antelope gas fields located 200 metres vertically and anywhere from two to five kilometres horizontally above the banks of the ever meandering Purari River.
The Elk and Antelope gas field wells at Elk-1, Elk-4 and Antelope-1 are actually strutting above geologically pear-shaped and overlapping subterranean reef structures located within a radius of 10 kilometres on a tropical forested knoll above the swampy Purari flood plains.
No traditional villages are located in the immediate locality of the well heads or the respective drill sites.
Baimuru district station is located some 80 kilometres east of Wabo.
In the last 12 months political leaders and administration officials of Gulf Province were only able to make it to Wabo and the drill sites at Elk-1, Elk-4 and Antelope as invited guests who “piggy-bagged on the company.
Even the presence of so-called Port Moresby-based landowner leaders is seen at this remote outpost before, during or after field trips made there by this writer to the area in the last 12 months.
So when relatively junior officers of the Gulf Administration and so-called landowner leaders make public comments about non-inclusiveness in pre-development participatory and benefits sharing checklist in the media from the comfort zones in Port Moresby or Kerema station one has to take their claims, allegation and assertion with not just a grain of salt but with the whole bottle.
What has been discovered at Elk and Antelope is natural gas resource of a magnitude that will transform the economic profile of Gulf Province and Papua New Guinea by 2025. The resource is awesome and it’s mind-bogglingly massive.
It does not require disoriented and misinformed little Gulf Province political, administrative and landowner opportunists to cry foul when nothing beyond exploration and discovery has taken place. InterOil Corporation must be given praise and accolades for taking the risk 10 years ago to go exploring – when no one else including the world’s biggest or Peak Oil companies would not touch PNG even with a 10-foot pole -- for oil and gas in an area many learned geologists and armchair experts wrote off as “dry bed”.
There was nothing to be discovered there, so they all said.
After spending K100 million on seismic surveys and spending up to US$35 million a piece on each of its drills in a persistent “never say die” fashion, InterOil Corporation deserves its massive success at Elk and Antelope.
The Antelope-1 and Elk discoveries initially provide the basis for InterOil to develop a single train natural gas liquefaction plant in Papua New Guinea.
The flaring of Antelope-1 on Monday, March 2, 2009 underpins a first train of 3.5 million tons per annum capacity plant at an estimated cost of US$5 billion.
There is scope for that project to be improved to two, three or more trains from the resources at Elk and Antelope and from adjacent unexplored and undrilled prospects.
Gulf Province people must not feel left out or ignored in this pre-development period. Having discovered the resources to develop a viable Liquefied Natural (LNG) project, InterOil Corporation as the developer needs to complete all its “midstream and downstream” prerequisite plans, preparations, contracts and logistical arrangements in place.
These arrangements also include completing social mapping, landowner identification and integrated landowner groups registered, getting the environmental impact study approved and certified and completing a schedule of preliminary developmental and benefits identification consultations with Gulf Provincial Government and resource and project area landowners.
InterOil’s primary goal is to establish a “win-win” peaceful and value-added development and benefits sharing partnership and understanding with all stakeholders right from the beginning.
There is enough resource there for Gulf Province, PNG through its State-owned company Petromin Limited and InterOil to share, develop and prosper together for a long, long time after the first 35-year operations of the LNG plant.
There is scope for primary aspects of the natural gas conversion and gas condensate preparations to take place within the Purari area prior to being piped to natural gas liquefaction plant adjacent to InterOil’s oil refinery in Port Moresby.
Such development promises a minimum life-span of 35 years on a single train operation and scope gets bigger and the life-span increase two-fold or three-fold as additional trains are added to the LNG plant.
And so the majority of Gulf Province people -- including landowners, provincial government, provincial politicians and potential politicians, little officers at the dysfunctional Gulf Province administration and Port Moresby-based pseudo-landowners, skeptics and cynics – must remain cool, calm and collected.
They must listen to the voice of reason and wisdom from wherever that comes from – National Government, InterOil Corporation, the Gulf Provincial Government or from Gulf’s learned sons and daughters – and accordingly to maximise their benefits, ownership and inclusiveness.
There are massive spin-off and sub-contractual works to come out of this project for Gulf Province people and provincial government to ride on to realise the province’s future development and prosperity aspirations.
The last thing Gulf people want to do is talk down their opportunity, speculate on issues that are neither here nor there, deny their chance of inclusiveness in benefits to share and to parochialise this awesome economic and social development chance with divisive and partisan politics or creating conflicts through doubtful and questionable land ownership claims.
The economic and social opportunities and potential for the future development and prosperity creation of Gulf Province overall is massive. This opportunity requires the absolute support and cooperation of every man, woman and child of Gulf Province.
The facts are clear. InterOil Corporation went out of their way to explore for oil and gas initially to find feedstock for their oil refinery in Port Moresby because they could not access Kutubu light crude directly.
InterOil has had to compete with international competitors on the open market overseas to buy Kutubu crude at the going international premium price to refine at its Napa Napa oil refinery. InterOil applied for exploration license from the Government of PNG to go exploring.
InterOil also spent its money generously to persist with the exploration when others preferred to stay away because of the nation’s economic meltdown commencing from around 1995 and finally easing off around 2005.
Opportunists that have emerged from the closets need to be mindful about the damage they can do to all the goodwill that InterOil is prepared to share to ensure a win-win success of its LNG project development.
Probing questions pertinent to intent and motive have to be asked when approaches are made secretively to the Prime Minister to grant a certain so-called landowner development association from the Baimuru District legitimacy as being representative of all the landowners and K5 million mobilization funds without the knowledge of immediate drill-head landowners.
No one will dispute traditional ownership of land or immigration of people with traditional land ownership to and fro within the Purari delta region and its remote head waters from the time of Adam and Eve.
Obviously there are people who have migrated west and spread along the way as far as the eastern bank of the Fly River and east as far as Mapenairu at the mouth of the Purari River and the western most villages and hinterlands of Ihu District.
From a low flying helicopter one can appreciate the sweeping vastness of the mangrove and nipa palm swamps that one over flies for 35 minutes to the coast from Wabo or for 35 minutes of the 45 minutes flight to Kerema airstrip.
There are landowner groups emerging overnight like mushrooms after one of those Gulf of Papua rainfalls.
Nearly all the opportunist landowner groups are new and therefore unknown to the company’s community affairs field workers who are permanently operating in the Baimuru District.
Ends.

*Susuve Laumaea is an award-winning veteran PNG journalist. He works for InterOil Corporation as the company’s Senior PNG Manager for Media Relations & Public Affairs. He also writes a weekly Public Affairs column for the Port Moresby-based weekly Sunday Chronicle newspaper.

Somare switches on InterOil’s record gas find

By *SUSUVE LAUMAEA

MONDAY March 2, 2009 was a special day for Papua New Guinea.
It was the day PNG announced to the world that it had become the home of the Southern Hemisphere and quite possibly the world’s largest vertical column of natural gas and gas condensate discovery.
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare had travelled with his wife Lady Veronica, daughter Betha and son Sana to InterOil’s Antelope-1 discovery well on the day at the head of an contingent of PNG government ministers and department heads, PNG and overseas corporate guests, InterOil executives and a strong media corps to officially switch it on. He officially flowed and flared the find for experts to determine the exact size of the discovery.
And it was a sight to behold as the Prime Minister assisted by InterOil CEO Phil Mulacek (pictured above) officially opened a smaller side valve of Antelope-1 well to flow and flare a small fireworks side-show for onlookers for about 20 minutes before Sir Michael again with Mulacek assisting opened the main valve to flow and flare the well again – this time creating a flame wall that intensified and rose to a height of almost 50 metres.
The heat generated the flare was something else.
By design, InterOil engineers had already pumped in a couple of million gallons of water from the nearby Purari River into a side well to provide a cooling water curtain to prevent VIP spectators and drill site workers from the intense heat.
The ground trembled beneath the feet of all present and natural gas and some condensate rumbled upwards from deep in the earth to be flared in a volcano-like spectacle.
The noise generated by the upward rumble and release of gas and condensate was akin to two or three jumbo jets landing simultaneously at Port Moresby’s Jacksons Airport.
It was awesome and everyone present had to wear ear-mufflers to prevent ear-drums bursting.
A visibly excited Prime Minister later announced to his ministers and departmental officials, InterOil’s guests and the media at the Antelope-1 site: “It is with great pleasure that I announce a World record natural gas discovery in Papua New Guinea.
“This discovery will place PNG as a co-leader with Australia in supplying LNG to the Asian Markets.
“The Antelope-1 well, which today flowed at a new world and PNG record rate of 383 million cubic feet per day with 5,000 bbl of condensate and a third party confirmed-capacity of 17.7 BCF (billion cubic feet per day) of gas, places PNG as one of the best quality gas producers in the world with a 760-metre column of gas.
“For our country, this marks an accomplishment that was achieved through many years of mutual cooperation between the government of PNG and InterOil Corporation.
“InterOil has been a continuous supporter of our country for over a decade. The company committed resources and capital over the entire time-frame to building the largest infrastructure in our country and making a substantial contribution to the country’s outstanding GDP growth and employment.
“InterOil built and operates the refinery at Napa Napa, streamlined and manages our largest refined product distribution network, and conducted the largest exploration program in the country’s history.
“This has culminated in the international success we share today,” Sir Michael said on Monday, March 2, 2009.
At the “burn-off” the Antelope-1 well flowed at 382 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (MMcfd) with 5,000 barrels of condensate per day (BCPD) for a total 68,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD), setting a new record rate for Papua New Guinea.
The flow test recorded a maximum calculated rate at 545 MMcfd for a dry gas reading through a 6 inch capacity choke that was only opened to 3 ½ inches or about 30% of capacity.
Conservatively adjusting the dry gas flow rate of 545 MMcfd to compensate for 13 Bbls of condensate per MMcf resulted in the foregoing 382 MMcf effective gas flow rate.
“As far as we are aware, the world record breaking gas flow rate from a vertical well confirms other records recently established by the well, such as the largest vertical hydrocarbon column height in a single onshore carbonate reef structure and the largest calculated absolute open flow (CAOF) at 17.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day,” InterOil Chairman and CEO Phil Mulacek said.
“The well results establish the country of Papua New Guinea as a world class gas resource base in close proximity to the largest and most well developed LNG market in the world.
“InterOil believes the Antelope-1 well clearly confirms the gas resource potential sufficient to proceed with plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on company land next to the InterOil refinery in Port Moresby.
“Antelope-1 and previous wells, have confirmed over 120% of full capacity, estimated at 500 MMcfd, for the first proposed LNG train.
“Third party resource estimates are underway and will be released when completed in the next few weeks.
“Recent settlement agreement with Merrill Lynch uniquely positions InterOil to enter direct negotiations with industry partners on an ownership stake in the Elk/Antelope structure, an ownership stake in the proposed LNG plant and long-term LNG offtake contracts,” Mulacek said.
InterOil’s PNG partner and State-owned company Petromin Limited hailed the discovery as a significant boost to underpin PNG’s second Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project.
“Let me firstly thank the Prime Minister, Minister for Petroleum and Energy and other Ministers of Government for facilitating (development of) Papua New Guinea’s second LNG Project,” Managing Director and CEO Joshua Kalinoe said.
“Declaration of Location and the extension of the License areas (by the Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma on site during the official flowing and flaring of Antelope-1) now pave the way for Petromin and the Operator, InterOil to commercialize the project.
“The flaring of Antelope 1 on Monday, March 2, 2009 underpins a first train 3.5 million tons per annum capacity plant at an estimated cost of US$5 billion. As we prove up reserves through further exploration drilling we will add another one or two trains.
“For Petromin, the State and people of Papua New Guinea this will be our single largest petroleum project where Papa New Guineans will be given the opportunity to be active participants in the whole value chain.
“The Board and management of Petromin made the decision to farm-in on the Elk/Antelope project after going through an internal risk assessment process.
“When we signed the Investment Agreement with InterOil in October last year, our petroleum geologists and reservoir engineers assessed the risk and made the observation that the Elk/Antelope field is less risky and highly prospective and recommended the farm-in arrangement.
“This second LNG project for PNG is unique and innovative in many ways. One such innovation is that there is a lot of flexibility on how the project will eventually be structured so that InterOil can bring in strategic partners to underwrite the LNG project.
“Further more, all the high quality condensate will be sold to the InterOil Refinery in Port Moresby, adding more value to the Papua New Guinea economy.
“The condensate extraction is planned to commence in 2010. So some benefits will accrue to the project partners years before the actual gas is sold as LNG.
“The innovative and competitive approach to project financing that we are currently pursuing collectively with InterOil and Pacific LNG will ensure that no State assets will be sold or swapped to finance the State’s equity.
“In fact Petromin with the support of InterOil and Pacific LNG is working on a financing structure that would ensure that State’s full 20.5% equity in the upstream and 10% in the midstream will not be diluted either directly or indirectly.
“We are determined to ensure that the State and people of PNG maximize their gains from this project both through the revenue stream as well as through technology transfer.
Petromin and InterOil have forged a very solid long term strategic commercial partnership.
“In this regard, I am happy to announce that InterOil and its downstream partners have agreed for Petromin to co-market its share of the LNG.
“This will make Petromin a fully integrated petroleum company in which Papua New Guineans will for the first time be given the opportunity to participate in the full value chain of the LNG business.
“This is what our political leaders envisaged when Parliament created Petromin in 2007. InterOil has now made it possible for this vision to be realized.
“We are determined to promptly deliver the second LNG project to Papua New Guineans on schedule in 2014 and the operator, InterOil has commenced the pre-FEED process, including contractor identification, financing, marketing, landowner study, and environmental study.
“Work is in advanced stages in putting together the PDL application. We want to thank the Minister for his expeditious actions in declaring the location of the gas find and extending the exploration licenses.
“We know that the project has the unequivocal support of the Prime Minister and our political leaders, especially members of Cabinet.
Accordingly we look forward to the project being given priority consideration as far as regulatory and statutory approvals are concerned.
“In fact, we are pleased to note that the approval process for the LNG Project Agreement for the liquefaction plant is progressing well.
“We understand that the Ministerial Gas Committee has given it the fullest attention.
“We now got the gas, international LNG recognition, and all we need is the LNG Project Agreement to be approved so that we meet the construction deadline,” Mr Kalinoe said.

*Susuve Laumaea is an award-winning veteran PNG journalist. He works for InterOil Corporation as the company’s Senior PNG Manager for Media Relations & Public Affairs. He also writes a weekly Public Affairs column for the Port Moresby-based weekly Sunday Chronicle newspaper.