TWINZA Oil Ltd’s failure to comply with the Papua New Guinea Government’s two conditions for negotiations on the Pasca A gas project has been criticised by a senior state minister.
Petroleum Minister Kerenga Kua said the Government had put a deadline of Oct 15 for Twniza’s top management to sign a non-disclosure agreement and to be in country to negotiate the deal but the developer had ignored this.
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| PNG Government Minister Kerenga Kua criticizes Twinza Oil ltd over failure. |
“The deadline for the negotiations has expired,” Kua told The National yesterday. “Twinza was given two condition to comply with by Oct 15.
“However, they have not respected this and have chosen to muck around non-existential issues.
“Negotiations have closed and we are now waiting on the State Solicitor to advise us on what to do next.
“Our hands are now tied up.”
Earlier this month, Kua told a media conference that Twinza needed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and, also, had key people involved in the negotiations to be in the country by Oct 15.
“State has demanded Twinza two things,” he said.
“One is that they must submit to signing a non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement, to have validity over the period of negotiations only.
“We have demanded that because they have a habit of going to the press at every turn.
“We believe that when you are in the negotiation phase, you should not destroy the confidentiality of the negotiations and dilute the good faith element by running to the media and negotiating your case there and in the public forum all the time.
“Secondly, we are asking that people (in Twinza) with the highest authority to close a deal, who are now presently based in Australia, should come up here to Papua New Guinea and negotiate face to face with the state negotiating team members.”
When contacted for comments yesterday, Twinza’s country manager Roppe Uyassi said company chairman Stephen Quantrill was currently in Port Moresby.
However, he could not comment further on the issue.
According to the Department of Petroleum and Energy, the proposed Pasca A project will see the development of the Pasca A gas condensate field located approximately 95 kilometres off the coast of Gulf and in shallow water (depth to 93m).
The field has certified 69.1 million stock tank barrels of liquids (condensate and liquefied petroleum gas) and 326.7 billion standard cubic feet of lean gas for development.
The National / Pacific Mining Watch
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