Air Niugini secures agreement with Air Vanuatu and Solomon Airlines, Cue Energy rejects takeover offer, and Steamships closes Highlands Highway operations. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Air Niugini has signed a deal with Air Vanuatu and Solomon Airlines for a tri-partite codeshare arrangement on the Port Moresby/Honiara/Port Vila route. The service still start by June, with Air Vanuatu and Solomon Airlines using Air Niugini’s Fokker 100 aircraft.

Meanwhile, Air Niugini is also expanding its Port Moresby–Hong Kong service to three times a week, from next month.

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Cue Energy Ltd, which owns interests in several petroleum properties in PNG, has recommended shareholders reject a takeover offer from New Zealand Oil and Gas (NZOG) as it substantially undervalues the company. NZOG already owns 19.99% stake in Cue, which it acquired in December 2014, and is seeking to purchase the remaining shares it does not already own.

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Steamships Trading Company Ltd has closed its East West Transport division’s Highlands Highway 0perations. According to the company, ‘this sad decision’ follows a lengthy review of the operation, which has served the region for many years. Since completion of the Exxon-Mobil PNG LNG development there is a ‘glut of capacity’, the company added which, when combined with the continuing deplorable state of the highway and insecurity, left an ‘unsustainable operation’.

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Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has introduced the Organic Law to set up the Sovereign Wealth Fund. It is now before the Constitutional Laws and Sub-Ordinate Legislation Committee of Parliament to deliberate on before it is tabled for debate.

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Nautilus Minerals Inc has announced that marine company Rolls Royce will provide the engines and thruster packages for the company’s production support vessel at the Solwara 1 copper-gold project offshore PNG. According to Nautilus, the order with Rolls Royce secures the main engines, azimuth and tunnel thrusters, and is the first major package to be awarded by shipyard, Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Ltd.

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Cott Oil & Gas Ltd is planning to move forward with a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) solution for the Pandora gas field in PRL 38, offshore Papua New Guinea, after a concept study by FLNG developer Wison Offshore & Marine demonstrated the project is technically and commercially viable.

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Ok Tedi HR Manager Harold Duigu (left) handing over the MOU to JKTech GM of Technology & Knowledge Transfer, Brett Cunningham (right), as Ok Tedi COO Musje Werror looks on. Credit: Ok Tedi Mining.

Ok Tedi Mining Ltd’s (OTML) supervisors and employees will receive training and development from Australia’s JKTech over the next five years as part of a multi-million kina strategic partnership. The state-owned miner signed a memorandum of understanding with JKTech during January which will see high-end technology products, services and training to OTML.

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InterOil Corp has reported that the Antelope 5 appraisal well in Petroleum Retention License (PRL) 15 in Gulf Province has intersected the top reservoir at 1,534m, a position 230m higher than previously anticipated. According to InterOil, Antelope 5 is located about 1.8km from Antelope 3 and is appraising the western extent of the Elk-Antelope field.

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Newcrest Mining Ltd has recorded a first half profit of A$200 million for the six months to end December 2014, a substantial improvement on the A$40 million result achieved a year earlier. The Australian-based company’s gold production for the period  was 6% lower than the corresponding six months of 2013, primarily due to lower grades at the Lihir mine in PNG.

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PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has welcomed Sime Darby’s acquisition of New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL) as a vote of confidence in the country’s growing economy and its agricultural industry. According to O’Neill, PNG is ‘creating the kind of investment environment’ that will continue to attract major regional and global players to the country.

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Santos Ltd, which is a partner in the massive PNG LNG project, has announced that it expects to recognise a non-cash impairment charge of about A$1.6 billion after tax in its 2014 full-year accounts, due to a lower oil price environment.

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Speaking at a Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry event regarding the 2015 Pacific Games, Organising Committee Chief Executive Officer Peter Stewart revealed that more than 200 local companies had already been engaged with the Games and K51 million spent.

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Work on a K233 million industrial park in Lae will start this year, according to the Morobe Provincial Government. The National Fisheries Authority (NFA) has invested K25 million into the PNG Marine Industrial Park.

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Papua New Guinea loses about K65 million each year to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the country’s waters, according to the European Union (EU).

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Highlands Pacific Managing Director John Gooding says an exploration and drilling campaign at the Star Mountains copper gold project will commence in April 2015. The project is about 20km north of the Ok Tedi mine, in the West Sepik Province. Highlands has identified 17 copper gold targets at Star Mountains.

PM Peter O’Neill discusses Anglo American’s entry into PNG with company management. Credit: http://www.pm.gov.pg

Meanwhile, PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has welcomed the execution of a joint venture and farm-in agreements between Anglo American plc and Highlands Pacific for the Star Mountains copper-gold project in Western province.

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Trukai Industries Limited is planning to expand rice production in Central Province. CEO Greg Worthington-Eyre says the company is also preparing to test a commercial scale production site of more than 400ha of rice crops.

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The first course for senior Papua New Guinean public servants under Australia’s Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct initiative has been completed. Twenty-seven PNG officials participated in the executive short course in governance and public policy in Port Moresby. The University of Queensland, in partnership with the University of Papua New Guinea, delivered the course.

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And, finally, the government of Palau is wrestling with the problem of what to do with what to all intents and purposes is an abandoned Chinese cruise ship. The ship was sent to Palau for the Pacific leaders’ forum last year to provide additional accommodation for delegates. But it arrived late, wasn’t fit for purpose has now been abandoned.