Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Petroleum, Jimmy Maladina, has unveiled sweeping legal and institutional reforms to modernise the country’s petroleum sector, with the formal introduction of a Production Sharing Act (PSA) that will serve as the legal and fiscal foundation for all new petroleum projects. The announcement was made during the PNG Petroleum...

Prime Minister Hon. James Marape refreshed Papua New Guinea’s connection with key LNG partner Eneos Xplora Inc., formerly JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration Corporation. Prime Minister Marape met with Representative Director and Chair of the company, Toshiya Nakahara, and his team in Tokyo this week as part of efforts to engage directly with Japanese co...

Port Moresby — Prime Minister James Marape has announced the appointment of Gerea Aopi as the new hairman of the board of Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) as the government moves swiftly to address serious governance concerns raised in a recent Australian media report. Aopi’s appointment was made prior to the emergence of these allegations but P...

The executive management team of Kumul Petroleum Holdings in early July visited two construction sites where the company is building important infrastructure to support the long-term provision of increased national content and essential services in the country. Currently under construction are the Motukea Fuel Facility, adjacent to the Motukea Internat...

Houston, Texas, USA, 9 July 2025 – Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has met with senior executives of ExxonMobil Corporation at the company’s global headquarters in Houston, Texas to progress strategic discussions on Papua New Guinea’s next generation of LNG developments — including the Papua LNG, P’nyang LNG and Wildebeest gas projects. Th...

ExxonMobil recently appointed Dinesh Sivasamboo as its new Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil PNG Limited. This appointment will be Sivasamboo’s second leadership position with ExxonMobil PNG Limited, having previously served in PNG from 2016 to 2019 as its Vice President for Production. Sivasamboo has held numerous, global senior leadersh...

Petroleum Minister, Hon. Jimmy Maladina has invited China State Construction Engineering Corporation to look at the petroleum industry as a choice of investment saying Papua New Guinea has a lot of potential. Minister Maladina told Mr. Wen Bing, the President of Chinese construction giant, the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China Sta...

Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL), Papua New Guinea’s national petroleum and energy company, has successfully completed its seismic acquisition campaign across the Kimu and Barikewa petroleum retention licences, where it acts as operator. KPHL Managing Director Wapu Sonk confirmed the milestone, stating: “On Wednesday, 26th March, we complet...

Parliament recently (12.03.25) passed two laws for the establishment and operation of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), a new body that will take over as the regulator of the petroleum sector in the country. The National Petroleum Bill 2025 was voted 84 to 0 into law, while the Oil and Gas Act Amendment Bill 2025 was passed on voices. Both bills ...

The Hon. Jimmy Maladina, LLB, LLM, MP, Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Petroleum, has invited Italian energy giant Eni to explore investment opportunities in PNG’s petroleum sector, highlighting the country’s vast resource potential and upcoming licensing bid rounds for new exploration blocks. As part of the ongoing Production Sharing Contract (PSC) fe...

Petroleum Minister Hon. Jimmy Maladina led a delegation of senior officials from the Department of Petroleum and the State Negotiating Team to undertake feasibility assessments on production sharing agreement (PSA) arrangements in Malaysia and Indonesia. The delegation met with senior officials from Petronas Malaysia on the 22nd of February 2025 to dis...

KPHL has just this month started gathering seismic data in its Barikewa petroleum retention licence in Gulf Province. Kumul Petroleum Managing Director, Wapu Sonk explained, “Our contractor, OM Holdings Limited or OilMin, has for the last few months been engaged in landowner engagement, building camps, helipads and bridging, drilling holes for explosiv...

The long-standing dispute over the Kutubu Petroleum Development License 2 (PDL 2) benefit-sharing structure has reached a critical point, with landowners issuing a 14-day ultimatum to the national government to reinstate the original benefit-sharing arrangement. In response, the Minister for Petroleum, Hon. Jimmy Maladina, assured all parties that the ...

Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to advancing the Papua LNG project, confirming that Final Investment Decision (FID) is expected by the end of 2025, paving the way for a new wave of economic growth in Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas sector. Speaking at the launch of the NASFUND FM100 Talkback Show on Monday, th...

Prime Minister James Marape provided an update following his productive meeting with ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods during the World Economic Forum in Davos, highlighting key discussions on the PNG LNG, Papua LNG, and P’nyang LNG projects. During the meeting, Mr. Woods reiterated ExxonMobil’s strong commitment to progressing these critical energy projects...

Prime Minister James Marape concluded a series of high- level meetings at the World Economic Forum with a productive discussion with Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies, focusing on the Papua LNG project and its future progress. Prime Minister Marape confirmed substantial progress on the re-engineering and re-scoping of Papua LNG, which is now movin...