While the timing of a final investment decision on Papua LNG remains uncertain, Papua New Guinean businesses are busy preparing for an announcement. Business Advantage PNG reports.

Susil Nelson-Kongoi, CEO, IBBM (right) speaks alongside Rio Fiocco, President, Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry (left) and Rajeev Sharma, CEO, Nasfund (centre) at the 2025 Business Advantage PNG Investment Conference. Credit: BAI/Stefan Daniljchenko

Almost 16 years after a final investment decision (FID) was made on PNG LNG, hopes are high for green lights to be given to the next wave of major Papua New Guinean resources projects, beginning with the TotalEnergies-led Papua LNG project.

While the timing remains uncertain, PNG business leaders tell Business Advantage PNG that they are already cautiously preparing for the day after FID.

“Once these projects are announced, there will be an expectation for things to happen almost overnight,” says Ronald Prasad, Chief Strategy Officer of Vodafone PNG.

All of these long-term projects that have been talked about for the last five years – we’re already in there in one form or another.

The telecommunications provider is actively preparing for Papua LNG and remains confident in its ability to support the nation’s growth through expansion of robust telecommunications infrastructure and investment in building capacity and innovative business solutions.

“We’re managing the balance carefully. Our outlook remains bright, and we’re excited about the possibilities ahead,” Prasad says.

Timing the run

The impact of Papua LNG is likely to be felt well beyond the resources sector itself.

As Justin Kieseker, CEO of the Remington Group – which has interests across information and communication technology, retail and manufacturing – notes, the opportunity to work with “the services businesses that serve all of these projects is just as important as the project itself.”

“All of these long-term projects that have been talked about for the last five years – we’re already in there in one form or another,” he says.

It’s really about making sure that we know the timeline [for FID] so that we can actually train people.

Rajeev Sharma, CEO of Nasfund, PNG’s largest private sector superannuation fund, says that Papua LNG could create not one but two major “liquidity events” for the fund.

The first positive event will come in the project’s construction phase, when up to 12,000 project workers start to receive their compulsory superannuation contributions. A second, less-positive event could come after the construction phase, when that workforce is expected to drastically decline in size, and laid-off workers start to draw down their super balances.

Sharma hopes that another major resources project – such as Wafi-Golpu or the ExxonMobil-led P’nyang gas project – begins construction straight after Papua LNG, thus warding off the second liquidity event.

But he says that Nasfund must “prepare ourselves,” including upskilling its own staff so they can educate fund members about the importance of maintaining super balances for retirement.

Building skills capacity

One theme that came up repeatedly in interviews conducted by Business Advantage PNG for this publication was the importance of training enough locals to meet the labour requirements of the upcoming resources projects.

PNG’s Institute of Banking and Business Management (IBBM) was established to play a key role in training local suppliers to work with the big engineering, procurement and construction contractors to the PNG LNG project. It is currently preparing for a similar role with Papua LNG, according to CEO Susil Nelson-Kongoi.

The IBBM already offers bachelor programs and diplomas for a variety of management roles. Nelson-Kongoi says the next step is to offer technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

“I’ve had a lot of discussions with TVET institutions,” she says, “I know that the Australian government has given funding to look at TVET institutions around PNG and how to revamp them from being supply-driven to demand-driven.”

Like Prasad and Sharma, Nelson-Kongoi is conscious of timing. She says TotalEnergies’ April 2024 decision to postpone a Papua LNG final investment decision to late 2025 or early 2026 gave the industry more time to train Papua New Guineans.

“But then the threat is that you develop them and then they take their skills offshore,” she says. “It’s really about making sure that we know the timeline [for FID] so that we can actually train people.”

Skills and recruitment are also front of mind for the likes of Andrew Candelet, PNG Country Manager for health services provider International SOS, and Fintan Lalor, General Manager at OM Holdings, parent company of Oilmin.

Candelet says his firm aspires to employ locally and in the lead up to FID will begin recruiting and training additional Papua New Guinean doctors, nurses and health extension officers.

“We need to make sure we can meet the demand when it does come,” he says.

Joint ventures

Oilmin has been providing field services to PNG oil and gas projects since 1992, and Lalor believes its strategic joint venture (JV) with Jerilai Pujari Holding Limited, the landowner company representing all the clans in the Papua LNG project area (Petroleum Retention Licence 15) in Gulf Province, puts it in a strong position.

“It’s the first joint venture that Oilmin has formed in 33 years. We see the value of joint ventures with strategic partners as the best approach to position for these big resource projects, enabling the JV to draw on the resources and strengths of both parties,” he says.

Oilmin is also in the final stages of talks with a registered training organisation to provide courses for skills such as construction, scaffolding and steel fixing.

“We see a gap in the market for Australian-certified training being delivered by Papua New Guinean-certified trainers in PNG,” he says.

Meanwhile, in Central Province, location of the ExxonMobil-operated LNG plant that will process the gas from Papua LNG, Steamships Trading Company has launched a transport and logistics joint venture with Laba Holdings Limited.

This article was first published in Mining and Energy 2025/26, released in October. Read the full edition here.