Santos to become a stakeholder in the P’nyang natural gas field project, an agreement between five telecom companies seeks to advance digitisation in Papua New Guinea, and upgrades to the Muliama–to–Bakok road due to commence soon. Your weekly digest of business news.

Independent oil and gas producer Santos. Credit: Santos

Santos Limited has announced that the company has signed a binding letter of intent to acquire a 14.3% stake in the P’nyang natural field gas. Santos will pay US$187million (K631 million) for the purchase, which is expected at the end of June.

‘The arrangements we announce today mark an important step towards the proposed expansion at the PNG LNG plant via a 2.7 mtpa third LNG train fed by existing Project resources and P’nyang,’ aid Kevin Gallagher, Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer in a statement. (Santos)

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City Pharmacy Limited (CPL) has reported a pretax profit of K8.8 million for 2018. Graham Dunlop, outgoing Chairman of CPL, said in his annual statement that the group saw a ‘substantial improvement in trading’ during the second half of 2018. (Post Courier)

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Representatives of Huawei, the National Information Technology Authority (NICTA), Kumul Telikom Holdings, Digitec and PNG DataCo have signed an agreement that commits all the parties to ‘advance digitisation intelligence’ in PNG.

The five companies are also the foundation members of an alliance that seeks to work together to address challenges in the sector. NICTA’S CEO, Charles Punaha, said: ‘It makes a commitment on behalf of all of us that we acknowledge what the issues are and we make a commitment to work together to address it and the challenges that we have in the sector. (Post Courier)

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Local road construction company Tasukolak Ltd has signed a contract with the New Ireland Provincial Government to upgrade the Muliama–to–Bakok road on the East Coast. The contract is for six months. Work is due to commence on May 20. (Post Courier)

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After a 7.2-magnitude earthquake on May 9 that damaged nodes of terrestrial and subsea transmission between Port Moresby and Madang, PNG DataCo reported last week that mobile networks and broadband internet access for its customers had been successfully restored. (The National)

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Oil Search Chairman, Rick Lee, reportedly said that the final gas agreement for the Papua LNG Project was ‘fair to all parties’. Lee explained that it also ‘ensured a strong and reliable income stream to the Government, provinces and landowners’. (The National)

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Ramu NiCo Management and Raibus Security Services Ltd have signed a K20 million business contract for three years. (Post Courier)

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Last week, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill announced that the cabinet will review social media in PNG to ‘crack down’ on fake news and information.

‘Cabinet will have a complete review of social media in the country, led by Minister for Communications.

‘I want to assure you that the Communications Minister’s first responsibility will be to review that so that we can make sure that the correct information and the truth are put forward to the nation so that they can be well informed on what is happening in the country.’ (Post Courier)

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The new Ambassador of Indonesia to PNG, Andriana Sutandy, met with Prime Minister O’Neill last week. During the meeting, O’Neill said that the relation between both nations has strengthened over the years.

‘Our relationship has matured with increased bilateral cooperation, new business activities, people-to-people engagement. Sharing a land border with Indonesia give substantial potential for trade as well as cooperation in working together on international issues that are of mutual interest.’ (Post Courier)

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It’s been announced that Speedcast International is now providing the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority with a custom private C-band Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network to have access to a more reliable and cost-effective internet connectivity for regional and provincial hospitals. (Satellite Today)

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Video of the week

This year, Oil Search is celebrating 90 years in Papua New Guinea. This new commemoratory video highlights its exploration history and development efforts.