Photo: James Marape
Prime Minister Hon. James Marape says Puma Energy has said they replied to Bank of Papua New Guinea’s (BPNG) 13 queries in relation to supply of foreign exchange (FX), but is still in court in a BPNG initiated court proceeding.
He said this resulted in Puma stopping its supply of aviation gasoline to Air Niugini, because it could not get the required FX to bring in fuel, resulting all in flights being cancelled last Thursday.
PM Marape said this recently (January 8, 2022) after meeting with top executives of Puma Energy in Singapore.
He was accompanied by Petroleum and Energy Minister Hon. Kerenga Kua and State-Solicitor Daniel Ropalgarea.
“I made it clear at the meeting that there must never again be a repeat of such a situation in Papua New Guinea, where there is no supply of fuel to planes and ships, and that Puma and BPNG must resolve all issues,” PM Marape said.
“I have asked Puma to come to a meeting with BPNG, with the State as arbitrator, for outstanding issues to be resolved.
“When we return from Singapore, we will hold a meeting with the Central Bank, to find out exactly what are the issues with Puma so there is never again a repeat of what happened last Thursday.”
PM Marape said BPNG had raised 13 issues against Puma, which the company had already responded to last September, however, BPNG twice took the company off the FX registry resulting in two stoppages of avgas to Air Niugini.”
“This is not just a Puma-Central Bank issue, but one of FX required by our business community, especially for the import of products into PNG.
“This issue points us to the fact that we need to relook at how Central Bank regulates and controls flow of FX to commercial banks and traders. We want ease of forex to our business community.”
PM Marape said Puma also highlighted at the meeting that Kutubu crude oil from Southern Highlands was not supplied on a regular basis to its NapaNapa refinery. He has directed Minister Kua to liaise with Santos and ExxonMobil as to how this supply could be increased – either to NapaNapa or a new refinery to be set up.
“Downstream processing of our natural resources, including oil and gas, is a major policy of this Government and our coalition partners,” he said.
“Therefore, we cannot be energy-insecure, as we are producing oil that goes to refineries in Singapore and is then sent back to us.
“We can reverse this arrangement if the cost structure is right.
“Oil from Kutubu can be sold in Kina to NapaNapa refinery, or a new refinery to be set up, and processed in the country.
“I will be having meetings with Santos, ExxonMobil, Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd and Mineral Resources Development Company – upon my return from Singapore – to look at producing petroleum products from our own resources instead of importing as we go into the future.
“The whole idea is to ensure that we are energy-secure, instead of being wholly-dependent on one supplier, to save the country from grinding to a halt as we’ve seen last Thursday.”
