The 2021 Mining and Petroleum Conference and exhibition started on Wednesday (December 1), hosted in two venues through a virtual setting with participants from the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane Australia and the Hilton Hotel in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, gave the keynote address to the mining and petroleum investors tuning in.
Marape encouraged more investment in the resource rich nation of Papua New Guinea, especially in the extractive industry of oil and gas.
“I’d like to encourage everyone who’s listening from outside, Papua New Guinea is not a place to fear as far as your investment is concerned.
“We have had world class investors like Newcrest and Harmony in our country, and so we’re open for business today as we have been in the last 46 years and will continue to be open to business in the next 46 years and beyond”, said PM Marape.
In recent years under the Marape led government, the issue of unlocking the resources of the country has been in the forefront of Government focused on better shares of the resource dividends through partnerships with the government.
“We’re trying to go into unlocking of our resources and going for partnership with all resource developers in our country, that is why in the oil and gas and mining space, we have Kumul Petroleum and Kumul Mining as partner in the extractive industry.
“When you have Kumul Petroleum and Kumul Mining as your partner, you’re rest assured, that your goal post is fixed, they’re your equal partners in this business and they give you the added security you need to ensure that Government is at your fingertips to attend to business issues as well as social issues at your respective project sites in PNG.”
PM Marape assured attendees that Papua LNG Project is picking up and set to be one of the biggest projects in the country. He said added that the project will start soon.
“Papua LNG Project has never been off track, it is on time, on schedule.
“The project partners led by Total assisted by Exxon, and assisted by PNG Government’s flagship company, Kumul Petroleum and all partners in the Papua LNG are working. We are running FEED and Pre-FEED together, FID will possibly be in 2023-2024..
“We have been a known investment address for many world class investors and we will continue to be because Exxon is here to stay with us for the next 20 years and Total is here to stay with us for the next 20-30 years, so as Newcrest and Harmony and Barrick, etc..
“So fear not, election can come and go, Prime Ministers may change but Papua New Guinea is a robust place of investment”” concluded Marape.
