[quote='Palm' pid='20356' dateline='1365481756']
Looks like O'Neill and NEC are taking things much further toward doing things right than we could have imagined. With the government enterprises being THE most important source for revenues for Treasury/SWF they are following through on their statements that the country cannot be dependent on taxes and royalties only; they must control the State's share of ownership in Enterprises and manage them like a business to bring in profits which supply dividends. This is the best thing that could happen for companies like IOC which want to be true partners with PNG. Having proven managers in place for these SOE's will minimize the ability of (for instance) super majors to call all of the shots and avoid/minimize things like cost blowouts. Couldn't happen at a better time. This process has likely contributed to the slowdown in IOC's SD process, but it likely puts the JKMs in the driver seat as far as preferred partners.
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I agree that this seems good, long term, for stability and for "fair-dealing" with IOC...but doesn't it also quite possibly mean we wait until the legislature creates the new entity before PNG is in a position to "sign off" on the deal? Could this mean September is now our new expectation? If so, we're going to need to hear "something" pretty soon from management about this.