In Port Moresby today: May 16, 2012

Pictures from in and around Port Moresby today, especially around the Hohola and Waigani  area in Port Moresby.
Enjoy.

What remains of our street at Hohola 4.-All pictures@MALUM NALU

My good mate Dominic Krau and his missus walking along our street in Hohola this morning. Notice that our road has completely gone, an instantaneous drain when it rains. The paradox is that Moresby North West MP Sir Mekere Morauta has been doing big things for PNG, however, can't do little things like patch up this road. Unfortunately, we'll have to suffer, as Sir Mek has thrown in the towel and won't be contesting this year

My photo of the day. A betelenut seller cleans up all the buai pekpek and other litter made by inconsiderate arseholes outside Mobil Service Station, Waigani, before plying her trade

Holiday Inn

Sun play over Waigani

bemobile bus stop, Waigani

Walkway along Waigani Drive

BSP Wagani



bemobile bus stop



bemobile bus stop

The place is looking much cleaner thee days

Walking down Waigani Drive

Crossing Waigani Drive

A roadside corn garden along busy Waigani Drive

A roadside corn garden along busy Waigai Drive



A clean market




Sunlight over Waigani



Outside The National newspaper office

I love the plants outside The National office

Duma denies terminating Gulf LNG Project

By MALUM NALU
Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma yesterday (Tuesday) denied that the government had terminated the Gulf LNG Project, The National reports.

Duma at the PNG LNG site outside Port Moresby last Friday.-Nationalpic by MALUM NALU

He, however, confirmed that the government had served warning on InterOil about deviating from the Gulf LNG Project Agreement of December 23, 2009.
Duma made the denial when asked to comment on stories widely circulating on the internet that his department planned to cancel approval for InterOil’s “US $6 billion liquefied natural gas complex but it was confident the project could be saved”.
InterOil said the government had no right to end the agreement and that it had the support of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, who faces an election June.
Duma, in reply, said he represented the government in his capacity as minister for petroleum and energy.
“We (government) are only warning InterOil that they are deviating from the project agreement,” he told The National.
“If they continue to deviate serve notice, through to termination, if you continue to disregard us.
“If InterOil are saying that they’ve been terminated, that’s not the case.
“We are only warning them, we are not terminating them.
“We have not cancelled the project.
“We’ve been urging them for the last two years to get the project up and running before the 2012 elections.
“I’ve been very patient.”
The Gulf LNG Project was signed with much fanfare just before Christmas in 2009.
Following approval of the agreement by the National Executive Council on December 10, 2009, Duma and acting Governor-General Dr Allan Marat signed the agreement securing PNG’s second LNG project.
The signing was witnessed by then Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.
The agreement sets fiscal terms for a 20-year period, which include a 30% company tax rate and certain exemptions applicable to large scale projects of this nature.
It also provides for a 20.5% ownership stake to be held by the PNG government’s nominee, Petromin PNG Holdings Ltd.
A further 2% ownership stake will be taken by landowners directly affected by the plant.
All that, however, is now at stake.

Government seeks to terminate InterOil's Gulf LNG project

By MALUM NALU

The government has served notice on Liquid Niugini Gas Ltd LNGL) – a project company jointly owned by Pacific LNG Operations Ltd and InterOil Corporation - that it intends to terminate the Gulf LNG Project Agreement of December 23, 2009, The National reports.
LNGL has been given 180 days (six months) as of last Friday to show cause as to why the agreement should not be terminated as the government accused it of deviating from the project agreement.
Petroleum and Energy secretary Rendle Rimua dropped the bombshell in a notice of intent to terminate the LNGL project agreement delivered to InterOil on Monday.
He also made it clear that LNGL did not have either one of three compulsory licenses, hence, should not go around making public statements.
According to the notice, LNGL had, by its conduct, demonstrated that it “has no intention of taken any steps under the project agreement (PA) in relation to the project”; and “is instead seeking to progress the Gulf LNG Project”.
“After 180 days, if we don’t resolve this, we will terminate the project agreement,” Rimua told The National yesterday (Tuesday).
“We are still waiting for them (LNGL) to reply.
“Really, they (LNGL) haven’t done anything (about the project agreement).
“As far as the government is concerned, the minister (for Petroleum and Energy William Duma) is the one who signed the project agreement.
“All notices are served by myself, nobody else.”
Rimua said the decision to serve notice on LNGL for project deviation was made after lengthy consultation between senior bureaucrats and lawyers.
“It’s been a team effort,” he said.
“We looked at it very carefully before we made a decision.
“The onus is on them (LNGL) now.
“They have to come good now, renegotiate, whatsoever.
“We’ve told them time and time again and it’s reached this stage.
“Government has made a decision that it doesn’t accept that.
“That’s always been our position since 2009.
“We’ve been telling them that they’ve been deviating from the project agreement.
“State has finally come up and said that we’ve had enough.
“We’ve issued notice because they are deviating.
“The project agreement is between them and us.
“In this case, we don’t like what they are doing.”
Rimua said LNGL did not have either one of three compulsory licenses.
“The project currently does not have a license,” he said.
“What they will require is three forms of license: Petroleum Development License (PDL); Pipeline License (PL); and Petroleum Processing Facility License (PPFL).
“That’s the first problem.”
LNGL, according to its website, has been established to build and operate a gas processing facility delivering LNG and on-shore LNG processing in PNG.

In Port Moresby today

The are pictures taken during the course of my work in and around Port Moresby today, showing the good, the bad, and the ugly of our capital city and home.
May they inspire you towards creating a better Port Moresby for all of us.
Goodnight.

Heading down the freeway today.-All pictures@MALUM NALU

Harbour City

Things that make you go "bump" at Harbour City roundabout

Bomber crater heading from Harvour City towards Downtown

Heading towards town

In town

Pothole along Hunter Street

Hunter Street

The shame of Hunter Street

Vehicle heading along Hunter Street

Crossroads of Hunter and Macgregor streets

Vehicles outside Crowne Plaza

Note the old fella juxtaposed against another another monolith along Hunter Street, Downtown Port Moresby, heading down towards Ela Beach. Port Moresby is indeed a city of extreme contrasts

View from Crowne Plaza

The twin towers of Crowne Plaza (forground) and Grand Papua Hotel in Downtown Port Moresby today. Looming in the background to complete the trifecta is the Delloites Tower

An evergreeen view of Ela Beach stretching as far as Manuabada Island as seen from outside Crowne Plaza today

I was standing at the crossroads of Douglas and Hunter Street in Downtown Port Moresby today, waiting for my driver, when I thought to myself that PNG is indeed at the crossroads in the garden of good and evil.Food for thought...

Crossroads of Douglas and Hunter Street in Downtown Port Moresby today

Hunter Street

Douglas Street

Ela Beach

Ela Beach

Ela Beach

Casurinas of Ela Beach

Ela Beach

Climbing Lawes Road

Descending Lawes Road

Lawes Road

Lawes Road

Lawes Road, Konedobu

Harbour City roundabout

Harbour City roundabout

View from the freeway

Hohola

Hohola

Greenery of Hohola

Buai sellers of Hohola

Hohola bus stop

InterOil still on sidelines

By BRIAN GOMEZ
New York listed InterOil, which for more than five years had been suggesting it may enter export markets even before ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG Project, is still somewhat on the sidelines, The National reports.

Construction work continues on the two massive trains at the multi-billion PNG LNG project liquefaction and storage facility site outside Port Moresby last Friday.-Nationalpic by MALUM NALU

It obtained PNG government development approval in late 2009 at about the same time as ExxonMobil, but kept changing its goalposts to the annoyance of PNG’s Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma.
InterOil anticipates that a final investment decision could be forthcoming by the year end.
The market was nevertheless taken by surprise when InterOil announced a few days ago that it had farmed out a 10% stake in PPL 237 (petroleum prospecting licence) and its planned Triceratops well for staged cash payments of US$116 million and additional project and resource payments with a combined value of US$345 million.
The PNG newcomer in this deal is Pacific Rubiales Energy, a Toronto-listed company with crude oil production in Colombia of over 250,000 barrels a day.
The potential of PPL237 is not known, but InterOil boasts 8.6 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas and 128.9 million barrels of condensate at its nearby Elk and Antelope fields, which are the subject of government approval.
Minister Duma has been reported to favour the entry of Shell and has insisted that InterOil partners with a reputable global producer, a process that is currently underway.
“This sale (to Pacific Rubiales) is not associated with the planned sale of an interest in the Elk and Antelope fields and related LNG equity partnering process targeted for the second quarter of 2012,” commented InterOil’s chief executive, Phil Mulacek.
Meantime, Canada’s Talisman Energy was a reluctant starter in PNG’s LNG stakes some three years ago when it tried to sell off its interest in the offshore Pandora gas field.
It changed tack because of pathetic responses and embarked on a gas aggregation strategy in the then neglected Western province.
In the next couple of years it will commence condensate exports and it aims to prove up enough gas for a three million tonnes a year LNG operation.
These prospects received a major fillip in late February when the Japanese trading giant, Mitsubishi, invested US$280 million for a 20% stake in nine leases that Talisman held with a number of Australian-listed oil juniors, including New Guinea Energy, Kina Petroleum and Horizon Oil.
Despite a difficult story when it first listed at 20 cents on Dec 19 last year, Kina has since enjoyed a Cinderella performance with its shares hitting a record 40c on May 1, a 100% rise in just over four months.
Oil Search, historically the single biggest player with a PNG history dating back to 1929, is meantime stepping up plans to discover enough reserves in the Gulf of Papua region for a separate standalone LNG operation.