Cott Oil and Gas secures stakes in PNG licences

Proactive Investors

Cott Oil and Gas now has 50% interests in two petroleum exploration licences that have gas and liquids potential in the southern part of the Papuan Basin, Papua New Guinea.
The company has fulfilled the farm-in commitments on PPL 435, which is held by Kina Petroleum , and has together with Kina been awarded PPL 436.
PPL 435 and 436 cover a total area of 18,436 square kilometres with the latter traversing the proposed western gas pipeline to the southern port of Daru.
Partner Kina has identified three substantial prospects and a number of leads. Evaluation work is also ongoing to develop the prospects and leads to drilling targets.

PNG opposition wants asylum seekers to join suit

By EION BLACKWELL
AAP PNG Correspondent

The lawyers challenging the constitutionality of the Australian detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island say they are seeking to invite the asylum seekers there to join the legal action.
One of the lawyers acting on behalf of PNG's opposition leader, Belden Namah, said on Wednesday he had received instructions to ask the asylum seekers to join the application against the centre.
Mr Namah's lawyer, Loami Henao, said they were seeking permission to visit the temporary detention centre on Manus to interview detainees for this purpose.
The lawyers were also seeking a temporary injunction in the Court of Human Rights of the National Court against any further transfers on the grounds the 274 detainees were being held illegally under PNG's constitution.

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Justice David Canning said he would rule on the temporary injunction at 1200 AEDT on Thursday.
The government's lawyer, Peter Kumen, said the Migration Act gave Minister of Immigration Rimbink Pato the power to create a processing centre.
He also argued that the case was a matter for the Supreme Court, and not the National Court circuit.
Justice Canning disagreed.
"These people are detained, aren't they?" Justice Canning asked.
"They can't go to the beach and do a bit of fishing unless they get permission ... they can't just walk out and have a spin around."
"It appears there is in excess of 200 people being detained."
"This is a case where these refugees did not come into the country of their own accord," Mr Henao said on Wednesday.
"They were seeking asylum in another country. They are asylum seekers as far as Australia is concerned.
"They are not asylum seekers as far as PNG is concerned."
The state did not have the right to detain asylum seekers without giving them access to a lawyer of their choosing, Mr Henao added.

ADB happy with Lae port progress

Source:  The National,Wednesday, February 13, 2013

By MALUM NALU

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has expressed satisfaction with the progress of the K700 million Lae port project and expects it to be completed by the end of next year, ADB vice-president Stephen Groff said.
He told The National after visiting the project yesterday the Papua New Guinea government should be planning now on how it would be using the port once it opened.
The ADD is funding 70% of project costs while the PNG government shoulders the rest of the 30%, with China Harbour Engineering as the major contractor.
“I’m very positive about it. I think that it will be critical that the government anticipates what the use of the port will be.
“It’s not just completing the port and deciding how you’re going to use it,” Groff said.
“The government needs to be thinking now about what the uses will be, what possible private sector partnerships that could be engaged to be part of the port.
“As far as physical completion and progress is concerned, we (ADB) are very happy, but the government needs to pay close attention to this and think ahead about what they’re going to use the port for.
“This is a critical piece of infrastructure for the Highlands Highway, so you need to think ahead in how you’re going to use this port for imports and exports, and moving goods in and out of the area.
“What we don’t want to see at the end of 2014 is physical infrastructure (port) is turned over (by ADB to government)and there’s a couple of years before the port is really active.
“We would hope that the port would be fully functional and active sometime in 2015.”
“We believe that would possible if the government is working now very hard in anticipating what the demand will be, doing preparatory work to enable them to start fully using the port immediately in 2015.”

Asian Development Bank pushing for SOE efficiency

Source: The National,Wednesday, February 13, 2013 

By MALUM NALU

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) is pushing for efficiency in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and not privatisation, according to the bank’s vice-president Stephen Groff.
Groff, who is in the country on a three-day visit, told The National in an interview yesterday that SOE reforms were important in many countries, and not just PNG.
“I think one problem when we talk about SOE reforms is people often equate SOE reforms with privatisation,” he said.
“We’re not advocating privatisation in all instances.
“We’re advocating corporatisation, we’re advocating increasing efficiency and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the institutions because the challenge is if state-owned enterprises are operating ineffectively, they drag on limited resources that the government has.
“If government has a chance in investing its limited revenues in high productivity areas and low productivity areas, if given the chance, all governments would invest in areas where the return for the activity is highest.
“Problem is in many SOEs, productivity is very, very low.
“Return on the investments is very, very low, which in turn drags on the economy in general because you take away scare resources away from education investments, health investments, and put them in some SOEs that are not functioning pretty good.
“So you’re not translating the investments into better activity and better returns.
“Since many SOEs are involved in provision of services, that is almost a double whammy, because not only is the government going to spend its money instead on investing in infrastructure, you invest these resources in an SOE that is not only inefficient but also providing poor services at the end of the day.”
Groff said the people, who ultimately should be the beneficiaries of revenue, were instead getting a poor deal.
“They (people) are not getting the kind of services they need in order to function as effective members of society and effective contributing members of the economy,” he said.
“This is why we think that SOE reform is incredibly important.
“Again, I stress that this is not just PNG.
“PNG is just one country through the Pacific and through Asia.
“I think the controversy last year was around our Finding Balance report, and again, Finding Balance was a very accurate title.”
Groff said the report focused on making individual SMEs more efficient and more effective.

Rescued

Source: The National,Wednesday, February 13, 2013 

 

POLICE saved two women from being burnt alive in Mt Hagen where a 20-year-old mother of a baby girl was thrown into a fire and burnt two days earlier.
Assistant Police Commissioner and Highlands Divisional Commander Teddy Tei said last Monday, two women were tied to pillars by relatives of a girl they were accused of killing through sorcery.
However, Tei said the eight-year-old girl the women were accused of killing was “gang-raped and killed by two known suspects”.
The women, from Enga’s Kandep district, were being tortured near Kagamuga Airport in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, were saved by officers who arrived after receiving a tip-off from a witness to the attack.
Tei said police rescued the two women and also arrested 20 suspects who were now behind bars at the Mt Hagen police cell.
He said the relatives of the girl, also from the Kandep, accused the two elderly women of performing sorcery and killing the girl on Jan 29.
The relatives of the deceased engaged a man claiming to possess supernatural powers, commonly known as “glassman” who identified the two women as sorcerers and blamed them for the death of the girl.
Tei said the “glassman” and the two rape-and-murder suspects, together with those ready to set the two women on fire, tied up the women.
“Police know their identities and they will be arrested sooner or later,” Tei said of those who managed to escape from the suspected group.
He appealed to the people not to take the law into their own hands to attack innocent and helpless people.
“What evidence do they have to produce to court for sorcery-related killing and torturing?
“It’s just a belief,” Tei said.
Relatives who were not sure of the cause of the death, were encouraged to take their love ones to the hospital and ask the doctors to carry out post-mortem to determine the cause.
He said people with other motives usually accused others of sorcery.
Tei said the “glassman” was money-driven and could point at anybody to obtain money.
The 20 suspects arrested would be interviewed
and charged accordingly by the police criminal investigations unit.
Tei said police would also arrest and charge the relatives if they helped or assisted in the interrogation and torturing of the two women.
He said police expected to arrest more people in relation to the torture and killing of Kepari Lanieta last Wednesday.
It is understood that police are also looking for Lanieta’s husband for questioning.
Tei said the cases were a priority and they were working hard to solve them.

Uron Salum to head international coconut body

Source: The National, Tuesday, February 12, 2013

PAPUA New Guinean Uron Salum has been appointed as executive director of Asia Pacific Coconut Community (APCC), a regional inter-government organisation based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
His appointment is for three years beginning this year.
Salum was appointed at the 49th session of the APCC held in Fiji last month and was the PNG government’s nomination on behalf of Pacific island member countries.
He was one of two candidates for the position.
Salum, 53, from Karkar Island in Madang, has long and extensive experience in the coconut industry.
He holds a bachelors degree in accountancy from University of Technology in Lae.
Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru says the coconut industry in PNG makes a smaller contribution than other major cash crops such as oil palm and coffee.
However, Maru said that coconut still has a strong influence through direct employment, export earning, gross domestic product contribution and food production.
He said PNG produced 146,526 tonnes of copra in 2011 and only 70, 366 tonnes last year due to low prices.
Maru said copra exports in 2011 were only 44% of average and last year only 32% of average.

Anti-PMIZ to visit Philippine tuna canneries

Source: The National, Tuesday, February 12, 2013

By MALUM NALU

THE government, in a bid to appease landowners protesting against it over the controversial Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) in Madang, is taking them to the Philipines to see for themselves how such projects are run.
Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister, Richard Maru said approval had been granted by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill for him and his acting department secretary Gerard Dogimab, to take the landowners to General Santos City.
He said this when asked what the status of PMIZ was.
“The main issue is that they (complainants) have been misled by environmentalists and greenies,” Maru told reporters.
“They were led to believe that if we start a marine park, we are not only going to overfish but also that the environment will be totally polluted.
“We want to prove to them that there is no such thing.
“We want them to look at big marine parks, like the one in the Philippines.
“They want us to take them to the Philipines to take a look at the big marine parks there.
“Once they are convinced that there will be no pollution (at PMIZ), we can proceed with construction.
“That’s the last bit to do now.
“That will be sorted out over the next two weeks.”
Maru said a major investor from France had already been secured and there must be no hold-ups to the project.
“Obviously, we have a big investor from France and we are keen on moving the project along,” he said.
French fishing company Sapmer-Piriou Joint Venture plans to spend US$500 million in a project to be based at PMIZ, which will employ about 2,500 people.
It will build a 300m-long fisheries wharf, a value-added tuna processing plant, a 400m dry dock and a shipyard.