PETROMIN PNG Holdings is to be disbanded, with its mining and petroleum assets transferred into two other state-owned companies. Petromin’s long-standing managing director and chief executive officer Joshua Kalinoe has already tendered his resignation.

Petromin's APPLs in yellow include and surround Manus Island (APPL 406 covers the bulk of it). From a DPE licence map.

Saying no to Petromin

A Petromin spokesman confirmed toPNGIndustryNews.net that Kalinoe had resigned effective April 4. 

The spokesman said Petromin’s mining and mineral exploration assets would go into a new state-owned entity, Kumul Minerals, while its petroleum assets would go into the separate but similarly named Kumul Petroleum. 

The spokesman said the changes made he and all of Petromin’s staff redundant, but there were opportunities for its staff to go into the other two companies. 

With discussions ongoing, he said legislation had to be amended and the administrative side of things was being looked into. 

One administrative issue is what will happen with the modern offices of Petromin Haus. The spokesman’s hunch is that the “petroleum guys might get a different building”. 

Another issue is what will happen to the strategic alliance struck by Royal Dutch Shell with Petromin in 2011. 

On this matter he suggested we all wait and see. 

“Let’s hope that will continue,” he said. “I’m not sure at this stage how that will evolve.”

PNGIndustryNews.net has separately heard that the 16.6% stake of the PNG LNG project held by state-owned Independent Public Business Corporation’s National Petroleum Company of PNG (NPCP) might end up under the Kumul Petroleum umbrella, but had yet to get confirmation. 

One source said that former prime ministers were going to be on the board of the holding company of the two Kumul entities while another source said the new structure will have Prime Minister Peter O’Neill as the trustee. 

Former Papua New Guinea PMs who are part of the O’Neill’s coalition government include Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, Sir Julius Chan and Paias Wingti.

Petromin’s existing assets include the Tolukuma gold mine and a string of associated exploration licences, a 22.5% stake of the Elk-Antelope field underpinning InterOil’s Gulf LNG project, a 0.2% stake of the PNG LNG project with an 11.28% in the central Moran field, plus a series of unproven offshore petroleum prospecting licence applications in northern PNG. 

Petromin also has a 30% stake in Nautilus Minerals' Solwara deepsea mining project in PNG, with Nautilus claiming it owes more than $A50 million for its share of development costs so far. 

Kumul Petroleum is actively recruiting for at least a dozen positions through job advertisements in the local press with the jobs ranging from human resource management to technical roles.