Oil Search shares rise sharply as K435 million profit announced

Oil Search shares rose sharply by 2.7% or 16c yesterday to A$6.71 (K15.344) after the company announced after tax profit had risen 9% to US$202.5 million (K435 million) last year with total revenue up 26% to US$732.9 million (K1.57 billion).

Despite rising from a recent low of A$6.39 on Feb 16, in the wake of a US$33.2 million revenue impairment report because of an exploration write off in Iran’s Kurdistan region, the shares are still lower than the A$6.81 it hit following the Jan 24  release of the company’s December quarterly report.

If the impairment charge, which cannot be written off against PNG corporate tax, was excluded the underlying net profit would have risen by an impressive 64% to US$235.7 million.

The PNG government was a major beneficiary of the big increase in Oil Search profits with corporate tax paid last year rising to US$237.4 million (K509.4 million), up from US$91.6 million (K196.6 million) in 2010.

The profit report, which came with a string of positive announcements, could see the share price rise again to a peak of A$7 a share, which was reached early last year.

Oil Search has enjoyed a steady gain since trading at less than A$1 in 2003, hitting A$4 in 2006 and trading between A$4.50 and A$7 a share since then.

Among the positive news announced by Oil Search managing director Peter Botten were:

·         The PNG LNG Project, in which Oil Search has a 29% stake, remains on track for first export in 2014;

·         The LNG consortium will be able to decide on feasibility of LNG plant expansion from current gas fields by late this year or early next year;

·         Oil Search will undertake record spending in PNG this year with an estimated in-country budget of US$2.2 billion on projects related to the LNG project and the company’s largest ever exploration and appraisal programme;

·         Despite planned shutdowns connected with the PNG LNG Project, oil production this year was forecast to remain at the current level of 6.2 million to 6.7 million barrels oil equivalent with next year’s production at similar levels due to successful development, appraisal and exploration drilling;

·          At the Taza license area in Iraq’s Kurdistan, Oil Search will spud a wildcat well in the middle of this year, targeting a prospect that could hold up to one billion barrels in place.

 Botten said construction work would progress this year on various elements of the PNG LNG project, including work at the LNG plant site, mechanical completion of the onshore and offshore gas pipeline, completion of the Komo airfield near Hides and completion of associated gas plant and modification programs at the oilfields and refurbishment of the Kumul crude export terminal.

He said drilling had commenced on the P’nyang South-1 well.

It will be followed by the Trapia exploration well with drilling at Hides expected to start in the middle of this year.

Assessment of a likely increase in reserves at Hides and prospective discoveries at P’nyang South and Trapia will enable ExxonMobil, the LNG operator, to decide by late this year or early 2013 whether there are adequate gas reserves to proceed with construction of a third train, and possibly fourth, train at the LNG plant site near Port Moresby.

Inland fish farming in high demand

By SOLDIER BURUKA of DAL

Aquaculture (fish farming) is one of the main activities carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock’s Agriculture and Resource Development Centre (ARDC) at Erap, outside Lae.

The interest in the inland fish farming programme is high and there is still very high demand for fish fingerlings to be supplied to farmers in many rural communities.

Aquaculture section field assistant, Karl Pewa, does some cleaning up of the fish tank. Facilities need to be improved, he says

DAL staff checking on one of several large fish ponds at Erap station

The ARDC, under the department’s food security branch, is working hard to meet the demand despite lack of adequate skilled manpower and funding resources.

However, the department is determined to continue working to maintain the aquaculture programme because of the demand and interest still shown by farmers in many rural communities.

Recently,  farmers from as far as Oro and Milne Bay provinces have requested for fingerlings to be supplied.

Officer-in-charge of ARDC, Ario Movis, says despite the constraints, the centre is still trying its best to cater for the many requests from the farmers.

He said inland fish farming was still an attractive agricultural activity and people realised that it was important for protein purposes and income-earning as well.

Movis and DAL’s Northern Regional caretaker director,  John Javes, both agreed that ARDC was in a good location along the highway connecting other provinces and such agricultural programs needed to be fully sustained to provide services to the farmers.

They said current rundown facilities at the centre needed upgrading and more funding resources.

They said that hatchery facilities in the aquaculture development section must be improved for continuation of the breeding programme for fingerlings to meet the high demand.

Inland fish farming or aquaculture has attracted a lot of interest and many farmers are keen to set up small ponds to breed fingerlings and grow carp, trout and other types of freshwater fish.

Mother and son get 47-year jail

By JAYNE SAFIHAO

WELL-known woman leader Ca­therine Mal was yesterday jailed for 17 years over a killing four years ago, The National reports.
 The National Court in Madang jailed her, her son and two nephews for a total of 87 years for the 2008 killing – described as a “vicious and savage murder”.
Mal, businesswoman and a former candidate for the Madang open seat, collapsed outside the Madang courthouse after the sentencing by Justice David Cannings.
The frail-looking mother, whose medical condition had delayed sentencing since December, spent a few teary moments with her lawyer inside the court room before then.
The jailing of the four marked the end of the Mal family murder case which caused the death of Daga Nanas on April 13, 2008, at Talim village on the outskirts of Madang.
Mal was jailed for 17 years while her son Emmanuel Ong was jailed for 30 years. Her nephews Moses and Lotivi Mal each received 20 years.
Mal’s jail term was for her part in aiding the murder by egging her relatives on saying “kill them, kill them”
Cannings said because each of the accused had varying degrees of involvement, each needed to be sentenced separately.
He said the two Mal brothers were given the same 20-year sentences because their personal circumstances were similar.
He said Ong was directly responsible of Nanas’ death, by striking him on the head with an iron rod and smashing his jaw.
“I have carefully considered the many fine things said about him in character references,” Cannings said.
“He is an educated and intelligent man, spoke passionately and eloquently in his allocutus.
“However, the overriding consideration is that he has been convicted as the principal offender in a vicious and savage murder and he must be subject to a sentence that fits the severity of that crime.”
In sentencing the pale-looking Catherine Mal, who tried in a last-minute attempt to tender a doctor’s report before the verdict was read, Cannings said her contribution to the death was significant as she shouted encouraging words to her three relatives to kill Nanas.
He said considering her glowing report of community service and her poor health, he had reduced her term to 17 years from the 20-year term he had intended to impose.
Since being found guilty last year, Mal had been hospitalised for a number of medical problems, including diabetes.
Cannings found that reports the Mal family wanted to seek peace through compensation had not yet occurred.
Cannings found that reports the Mal family wanted to seek peace through compensation had not yet occurred.
However, he suggested that they could consider that when they
became eligible for parole

Moresby gangs rob cruise ship tourists

PORT Moresby’s image suffered a blow again after passengers from cruise ship Amadea were robbed at two separate locations in the city over the weekend, The National reports.
 The robberies prompted Tourist Promotion Authority chief executive officer Peter Vincent to call on the government to curb rising crime, saying it was a poor advertisement for Papua New Guinea.
“Port Moresby’s image already suffers from being labelled as one of the most-dangerous cities in the world,” he said.
“Such criminal attacks only worsen the situation and put back our efforts in trying to improve the image of Port Moresby and PNG generally as a tourist-friendly destination by a further 10 years.”
In one incident, a tourist couple, their guide and a taxi driver were held up at the back gate of parliament last Sunday morning.
All their personal items, including cash, cameras, jackets and passports, were taken by the robbers who escaped in the taxi which was later recovered at the nearby Erima settlement.
In the other incident, another passenger from the same cruise ship, who was part of an organised tour group visiting Koki market, had his camera snatched by an offender who ran off.
Vincent expressed grave concerns for the future of cruise ship visits to Port Moresby and the country.
“Port Moresby and PNG just cannot afford to have criminal elements running around robbing tourists when TPA and its industry partners, including PNG Ports, are putting in a lot of time and resources to develop the cruise tourism sector.”  
Vincent called on the national government and law enforcement agencies to seriously address the escalating law and order problems in Port Moresby and nationwide.
Apart from developing a practical cruise tourism strategy for PNG as part of the national tourism master plan 2007-17, TPA had also gone to international conferences to convince major cruise ships to visit PNG.
One more cruise ship, Voyager, will visit Port Moresby later this month and the Amsterdam will stop over in November. Several others will visit Rabaul, Wewak, Madang and Alotau in the coming months.
PNG Ports was also contributing significantly to cruise tourism by developing its port facilities and infrastructure to be “tourist friendly” and had also introduced a scheme for unemployed youths in Port Moresby to be engaged as tour guides.
 “A lot of resources are been put in to make the cruise tourism sector work in PNG as it is a lucrative sector and we need the support of all relevant government agencies, other stakeholders and the general public to appreciate and protect such tourism activities for the best overall interests of our country,” Vincent said

Port Moresby's nightmarish public transport system

The public transport system in Port Moresby is a nightmare, more so at peak hours in the morning and in the afternoon, when students and workers are leaving for work or returning home.
Getting on a PMV - short for public motor vehicle - in the city is chaotic.
Here are some pictures from Hohola bus stop this morning, however, it is the same or even more chaotic in other parts of the city.- Pictures@MALUM NALU

MMJV denies knowledge of fish deaths

By MALUM NALU

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures has denied any knowledge of the fish deaths in the Markham River of Morobe province last week.

This follows local villagers discovering dead fish and eels floating on the Markham River and demanding an investigation from relevant authorities.

Affected communities are from Wampit, Oomsis, Potsie, Markham Bridge and three Labu villages.

Bulolo MP and National Planning Minister, Sam Basil, also refused to jump the gun at the weekend and start blaming MMJV.

David Wissink, general manager - sustainability and external relations with MMJV, said last Friday  that officers from Department of Environment and Conservation and Mineral Resources Authority would visit the site last Saturday.

“It is not known what has caused the fish deaths, however, such occurrences are a well-documented phenomenon throughout the world and are usually caused by depletion in dissolved oxygen in the water,” he said.

“The greatest impact on the river system in the area at the moment is the Kumalu mudslide where cubic kilometres of sediment have entered the river system due to the heavy rain.

“The Hidden Valley mine was alerted Wednesday (Feb 15) by locals from Chiatz village near the confluence of the Watut and Markham Rivers of approximately 500 dead fish and prawns.

“This location is 162km downstream from the mine site.

“The HVJV environment team has contacted the DEC about the incident but there is nothing that would point to the mine’s involvement in this matter.

“The mine has agreed to provide environmental support to help identify the cause.

“The quality of the water discharged from the Hidden Valley mine operations is monitored on a daily basis and is reported to the DEC weekly and monthly.

“There are no abnormalities in the Hidden Valley water quality data as it is well within compliance parameters.”

Basil agreed with Wissink when contacted last weekend.

“We have many activities happening upstream like large and small-scale mining, PNG Forest Products’ treatment of timber using preservatives, Kumalu River sedimentation and the recently-dynamited pool of Patep-Munanung (by PNG Defence Force),” he said.

“I would wait for the recently-dispatched environmental scientists from the Department of Environment and Conservation to announce their findings first before I as a politician make any comments.

“I have learnt my lessons the hard way, dealing with environmental pollution, that we have to be 110% correct in our claims.

“The environment team are the right people to comment on what are the causes of the dead aquatic animals.

“I will say something after their feedback.

“I believe they should do their job without anybody behind their backs so we all wait and see.”

My blog is No. 1 in Papua New Guinea

After running my blog as a labour of love for six years, it finally became top rated website in PNG by international rankings agency, ALEXA, today, surpassing even the websites of both daily newspapers.http://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/Regional/Oceania/Papua_New_Guinea