02-25-2013, 10:01 PM
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20130225/mohome.htm
New Board sworn in
By MELANIE VARI
PAPUA New Guinea’s very own oil company, National Petroleum Company PNG (NPCP), which is estimated to have an aggregated net asset value of K20 billion in other companies and a share of the LNG Project valued at K15 billion, swore in a new board of directors on Friday.
Minister for Public Enterprises and State Investments Ben Micah, Minister for Finance James Marape and Governor for Southern Highlands Province, William Powi were three MPs present at the solemn ceremony conducted by Deputy Chief Magistrate Dessie Magaru.
Ms Magaru swore-in a high-powered group including, Chairman Frank Michael Kramer and his six directors, Managing Director Trans Wonderland Larry Andagali; Chairman MRL Capital Mark Soipang; Country Manager Barrick PNG Ila Temu; Chief Executive Officer Resource and Logistics Solutions Mathias Lasia; Acting Managing Director NPCP Wapu Sonk; and General Manager ECO Care Engineering Limited Professor Benedict Yaru.
Prior to the swearing-in ceremony Mr Micah acknowledged the presence of other dignitaries including, Mineral Resources Development Company’s (MRDC) Augustine Mano and new Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC) boss Wasantha Kumarasiri. He explained that NPCP was owned by the 7 million people of PNG through IPBC, was previously known as Kroton in 2008, a company nominated by the State of PNG at the time to participate in the PNG LNG Project.
With Kutubu entering the scene that many years ago, PNG was labelled a third or fourth league player in the world oil business, however, Mr Micah said this nation has proven all its critics wrong because it is now known as unique and holds some of the biggest oil and gas reservoirs in the hemisphere.
Despite a controversy-ridden past, NPCP has 16.57 percent in the LNG Project and is the third largest partner behind ExxonMobil and Oil Search Limited.
In November 2011 following the August 2 change in government, the National Executive Council (NEC) moved to shelve Kroton (now NPCP), transfer its employees to IPBC and reduce its mandate to the PNG LNG Project, however the O’Neill-Dion Government has a completely different view.
“The O’Neill-Dion Government has a different view, that PNG should build on the balance sheet of NPCP and build our own capacity to partner with our resource developers in a meaningful manner and not become tax and royalty collectors,” said Mr Micah.
The NPCP was revived by the National Government three weeks ago and the minister thanked other partners like Oil Search, Santos, InterOil, and countries with big companies like China, Korea and Japan who have seen market sense as diplomatic partners.In clarifying the difference between Petromin and NPCP, acting MD Wapu Sonk told the Post-Courier: “Petromin as we can understand just by its name looks after petroleum and mining interests, but NPCP is just focussed on the LNG Project and oil and gas projects.”
Meanwhile, the minister announced at the end of the ceremony that NPCP will spearhead developments through the growth and wealth it creates and better manage landowner percentage by working with the five LNG affected provincial governments (Southern Highlands, Hela, Western, Gulf and Central provinces).
“I would like to help the landowners through NPCP, with the little share they have with the provincial governments. In the next phase I will, with the support of this board and IPBC, set up the landowners to become millionaires and billionaires in their own right by having their own company.”
“Governor, I want us to remove the equities portion in NPCP and set up for them a separate landowner company, and I want this company to work in partnership with MRDC and NPCP to create a big partnership that must control our oil and gas in this country,” announced Mr Micah. He called on all landowners to be aware of this and co-operate with him as he has already set up a working committee at IPBC so that it would become a stand-alone company that must directly own the interests of the customary landowners in the oil and gas industry.
New Board sworn in
By MELANIE VARI
PAPUA New Guinea’s very own oil company, National Petroleum Company PNG (NPCP), which is estimated to have an aggregated net asset value of K20 billion in other companies and a share of the LNG Project valued at K15 billion, swore in a new board of directors on Friday.
Minister for Public Enterprises and State Investments Ben Micah, Minister for Finance James Marape and Governor for Southern Highlands Province, William Powi were three MPs present at the solemn ceremony conducted by Deputy Chief Magistrate Dessie Magaru.
Ms Magaru swore-in a high-powered group including, Chairman Frank Michael Kramer and his six directors, Managing Director Trans Wonderland Larry Andagali; Chairman MRL Capital Mark Soipang; Country Manager Barrick PNG Ila Temu; Chief Executive Officer Resource and Logistics Solutions Mathias Lasia; Acting Managing Director NPCP Wapu Sonk; and General Manager ECO Care Engineering Limited Professor Benedict Yaru.
Prior to the swearing-in ceremony Mr Micah acknowledged the presence of other dignitaries including, Mineral Resources Development Company’s (MRDC) Augustine Mano and new Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC) boss Wasantha Kumarasiri. He explained that NPCP was owned by the 7 million people of PNG through IPBC, was previously known as Kroton in 2008, a company nominated by the State of PNG at the time to participate in the PNG LNG Project.
With Kutubu entering the scene that many years ago, PNG was labelled a third or fourth league player in the world oil business, however, Mr Micah said this nation has proven all its critics wrong because it is now known as unique and holds some of the biggest oil and gas reservoirs in the hemisphere.
Despite a controversy-ridden past, NPCP has 16.57 percent in the LNG Project and is the third largest partner behind ExxonMobil and Oil Search Limited.
In November 2011 following the August 2 change in government, the National Executive Council (NEC) moved to shelve Kroton (now NPCP), transfer its employees to IPBC and reduce its mandate to the PNG LNG Project, however the O’Neill-Dion Government has a completely different view.
“The O’Neill-Dion Government has a different view, that PNG should build on the balance sheet of NPCP and build our own capacity to partner with our resource developers in a meaningful manner and not become tax and royalty collectors,” said Mr Micah.
The NPCP was revived by the National Government three weeks ago and the minister thanked other partners like Oil Search, Santos, InterOil, and countries with big companies like China, Korea and Japan who have seen market sense as diplomatic partners.In clarifying the difference between Petromin and NPCP, acting MD Wapu Sonk told the Post-Courier: “Petromin as we can understand just by its name looks after petroleum and mining interests, but NPCP is just focussed on the LNG Project and oil and gas projects.”
Meanwhile, the minister announced at the end of the ceremony that NPCP will spearhead developments through the growth and wealth it creates and better manage landowner percentage by working with the five LNG affected provincial governments (Southern Highlands, Hela, Western, Gulf and Central provinces).
“I would like to help the landowners through NPCP, with the little share they have with the provincial governments. In the next phase I will, with the support of this board and IPBC, set up the landowners to become millionaires and billionaires in their own right by having their own company.”
“Governor, I want us to remove the equities portion in NPCP and set up for them a separate landowner company, and I want this company to work in partnership with MRDC and NPCP to create a big partnership that must control our oil and gas in this country,” announced Mr Micah. He called on all landowners to be aware of this and co-operate with him as he has already set up a working committee at IPBC so that it would become a stand-alone company that must directly own the interests of the customary landowners in the oil and gas industry.