Carr says PNGs status under O'Neill will prosper

[Palm]

Aussie Foreign Minister Carr has pledged specified dollars to a health initiative as requested by O'Neill and parliament. They had asked for money to be targeted specifically; they got what they've asked for. Carr likes what he sees so far.

"AUSTRALIA'S Foreign Minister Bob Carr says Papua New Guinea is set to play a bigger role internationally under the government of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.

Senator Carr is in PNG visiting health and education facilities in the nation's western highlands, ahead of a joint PNG/Australian ministerial conference in Port Moresby on Thursday.

"I think all the messages the O'Neill government is sending are very, very positive and I think we'll see a corresponding rise in the status of PNG," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"Certainly the message about political stability and rule of law is very reassuring.

"It's an astonishing achievement for a country with this topographical diversity and this ethnic mix ... to have pulled off a vast democratic election. If Papua New Guinea can do it, there's no country in the world that can't do it."

For 10 months from August 2, 2011, PNG was mired in a political crisis over who was the country's prime minister - the parliament-backed Peter O'Neill against the court-supported Sir Michael Somare.

Shortly after becoming foreign minister Senator Carr drew the ire of some PNG politicians after he said Australia would organise sanctions against the Pacific nation if it cancelled the 2012 elections.

Following the July/August vote, Mr O'Neill was returned to the prime ministership and heads a coalition made up of 94 of PNG's 111 MPs.

Senator Carr was speaking to reporters at the Mt Hagen general hospital where he announced a $A66 million commitment to reducing child and maternal deaths in PNG.

The money will provide up to 1,400 nursing and midwifery scholarships, with the aim of passing skills to PNG health workers.

Five pregnant women die in PNG every day, and a woman in PNG is 80 times more likely to die with pregnancy complications than a woman in Australia.

Senator Carr said the scholarships will provide for 450 nurses and 500 midwives by 2013.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is also in PNG to visit Australia's Manus Island asylum seeker detention centre.

Mr Bowen and Senator Carr will join Trade Minister Craig Emerson and Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare at the ministerial forum on Thursday."

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/wor...6529792824

[Spartina]

You know it's interesting reflecting back after reading this article Palm. It truly is remarkable how far we have come and how much better things are now for IOC then they have ever been.

I'm trying to remember three years ago next month when the stock hit $83 where we were as far as drilling and C3,C2 #'s for Elk/ Ant, and how far we have come in terms of political uncertainty as well as resource numbers, not to mention all the work that has been done on the ground. The roads, the infrastructure at Napa, Napa, purchasing of all those bulldozers @ pennies to the dollar, all the man hours at the refinery without a time loss injury. The success with Ant 3, the increased liquids at the bottom of Triceratops , not to mention the Triceratops discovery itself. The new seismics with the waho and mako possibilities. The deal with PRE, all the off take agreements that Conrad helped set up - the list goes on and on (please feel free to add)

I can't wait for the pps to finally reflect not only all these new positive developments, but all the incredible ones that lie ahead. Only a matter of time, not if but when.

[Palm]

Agree Spartina. And I know there is great frustration among people seeing the pps is where it is in spite of you list, but these are all things that de-risk the project. The value is there. The few things that remain are significant, but are now very doable. Other points to make is the great recovery in LNG pricing since 3 years ago; coupled with the Fukishima tragedy, the great cost overruns in Aussie projects, and the overall desire for NG over coal and oil, and the table is more than set. Against us is the uncertainty than some have that the last steps will be accomplished, the possible push back in production realization (depending if we are doing the first train with EWC), and the still infancy of the LNG industry (cost overruns are a negative here, will US allow much LNG to be exported, etc), and we are where we are.

So we wait, but with all these things are am less anxious at the pps than I was a year ago at that pps.

[Palm]

Also Spartina we all have to remember PNG is still in very early stages of petroleum (especially NG) exploration. Heard a great analogy this AM that compared the oil/gas boom in Ohio to what's going on in the Dakotas with the Bakkan shale play. The Dakotas have been booming for a while and are in the ful production stage. Things have been explored, the best areas identified and production is in full swing. In Ohio the serious exploration is still in process. Estimates of wells to be drilled by the end of 2012 are almost spot on to reality (161 projected, 164 drilled). Some are producing very well, some not. But Ohio is still very much in the exploratory stage. Infrastructure still has to planned and put in, etc, so it's expected that Ohio is a couple of years away from the real boom.

PNG is still very much in the exploratory stage and the good plays are being proven up. Still very speculative, but derisking is happening.

[Spartina]

My nephew moved from Florida to N Dakota to work for Slumberger (SP?) - of all co's - He's doing great, unbelievable success story.