Could Papua New Guinea’s second gas project get the green light in 2025? In an exclusive interview with Business Advantage PNG, Arnaud Berthet, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP PNG, outlines the Papua LNG project timeline and the activities left to complete on the road to FID.
Kumul Petroleum (KPHL)
After a decade focused on existing minerals and hydrocarbons production, Papua New Guinea is gearing up for an anticipated wave of large new investments in its resources sector. We hear from some of the key players.
Forex shortages in PNG have acted as handbrake on both economic growth and foreign direct investment over the past decade, according to the IMF. However, domestic and concessional investors have been stepping in to keep PNG’s economy moving.
Wapu Sonk, Managing Director of Papua New Guinea’s state-owned oil and gas company Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited, spoke about the way forward with the TotalEnergies-led Papua LNG project and the “unexpected blessings” its delay could bring at this month’s 2024 Business Advantage PNG Investment Conference. Watch his exclusive fireside chat.
This year’s PNG Investment conference saw top speakers from across the business sector and government come together, including Prime Minister James Marape, Kumul Petroleum Holdings MD Wapu Sonk, Air Niugini CEO Gary Seddon, PNG Ports Corporation CEO Neil Papenfus, Bank of PNG Chairman David Toua, and country head of the IMF Sohrab Rafiq.
Day 1 of the 2024 Business Advantage PNG Investment Conference featured top speakers from across the business sector, including Kumul Petroleum Holdings’ Wapu Sonk, Bank of Papua New Guinea Chairman David Toua and the IMF’s Sohrab Rafiq, who spoke of the positive impact of the central bank’s new approach to managing foreign exchange.
With a strong decade on the horizon for mining and energy in Papua New Guinea, Business Advantage PNG is set to publish its first special edition devoted solely to these sectors.
Work has begun on Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd’s US$100 million steel fabrication plant just north-west of Port Moresby. In an exclusive interview, Kumul Petroleum MD Wapu Sonk outlines how the facility will boost PNG manufacturing, and anchor a new Special Economic Zone in the Caution Bay area.
Kumul Petroleum’s plan to manufacture large-scale infrastructure components for major resources projects in Papua New Guinea has taken a major step forward, following the signing of construction contracts for a US$100 million (K358 million) fabrication facility outside Port Moresby.
State-owned oil and gas company Kumul Petroleum has been gradually acquiring licences to some of Papua New Guinea’s smaller and ‘stranded’ gas assets. Managing Director Wapu Sonk explains the strategy behind the move to Business Advantage PNG.