The people of Gulf province stand to benefit more from the recent signing of contract for the Pasca A Project between the National Government, the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) and developer Twinza Oil (PNG) Limited.
Speaking at the signing ceremony which took place at the Government House in Port Moresby city on Thursday 19th December, Prime Minister James Marape announced that once Twinza decides on its Financial Investment Decision (FID), which is a critical stage in energy projects where funding is approved, and execution begins, the operator will set up base and operating out of Kerema town, meaning spin off benefits for local business houses, for the landowner companies involved in the project and for the people of the province.
“We will use this project to make sure that Gulf province rises up to where it supposed to be as an oil and gas resource province,” said the prime minster.
This first offshore project will produce out of Gulf province and with the 5% of the product allocated for domestic market use, it will create an industry out of the province as well.
Prime Minister Marape said Gulf province carries the PNG LNG project through the pipelines, and while the Papua LNG project is still in progress, the Pasca A Project is set to transform the province in a few years’ time.
Therefore, by way of preparing the province to cater for this massive oil and gas project, the government has committed to dishing out some big amounts in Business Development Grants of K60 million and K150 million in Infrastructure Development Grants (IDG) for a three-year running.
These promised fundings should see the province start improving or creating new infrastructures to enable the ease of running operations once the project comes into its construction and later production phase.