04-03-2013, 05:15 AM
'bertl05' pid='19938' datel Wrote:True Palm, but my point is that we have seen "purges" before and in the end the culture of abuse and money grappeling remains the same. I dont expect that to change now. I agree ONeil is a brilliant and seemingly honest leader by PNG standards. I do believe the recent developments will help IOC get a fair deal. But leaks and the likes wont end. Like I said DPE is a sieve and there are many involved. The bureaucrats run the day to day mechanics of the DPE and will continue to do so, and will also staff the "new" govt owner of the PNG % of gulf LNG. It will be mostly the same guys. The disdain that these mid level bureacrats have for IOC wont change , and firing one or 2 wont change it. It may be muffled or quieted down and such open displays of disdain as newspaper plants, etc etc might calm down, but in the end the steady stream of leaks most likely wont end. I do believe the playing field has been leveled a bit. Clearly IOC was running uphill and facing stiff headwinds. It was a horrific place to try to navigate for a few years. But in the end IOC needs to execute a quality deal.
Cheer up Bert. Do we know it was all of Petromin, or just a few? Even if the first, I would say that disbanding it and firing the head is a fairly strong 'intervention', one that might actually achieve some kind of culture change, if not just to show that there is a downside to playing games with the Nation's resources..

