Prime Minister Marape upon arrival in Sydney this morning met with major Mining and Petroleum investors at the Sofital Hotel, ahead of the PNG Mining, Petroleumand Investment Meeting that will be held at the Sydney Hilton Hotel from 05th-07th December 2022.
In his discussions with the Chief Executive Officers of Santos, K92, Twinza, ExxonMobil, Newcrest and Harmony Gold, Prime Minister Marape advised investors to view their investment in its entirety in that it should not be entirely focused on royalty, benefit-sharing and equity issues but rather diversify their investment into exploration and tax credit schemes into social license including for development of law and order infrastructure and services.
Prime Minister discussed the issue of incentivizing exploration and optimising Government take and revenues to invest in downstream processing and value add of the vast non-renewable and renewable resource for export to nearby Asian and global markets.
Prime Minister will highlight these issues in his Keynote Opening Address to this Conference tomorrow morning. Prime Minister in his discussions informed that PNG was a renowned Mining and Petroleum Country, given over 100 years of operations by ExxonMobil and Oil Search and would remain an attractive investment destination.
In terms of supporting the PNG National Budget, Prime Minister Marape encouraged for Mining and Petroleum Companies to pay Capital Gains, Corporate Income Tax as well as support through Tax Credit Schemes.
Prime Minister mentioned his appreciation especially to K92 Mining and ExxonMobil for being compliant in paying their taxes.
In terms of Papua and P’nyang, Prime Minister Marape urged for synergy of these projects by the developers to ensure reduction in capital costs.
This notion was accepted by the investors. With regard to the Wafi-Golpu Projects his discussions with Newcrest and Harmony Gold Joint Venture given the advanced negotiations with the PNG State Negotiation Team and an amicable landing was being anticipated.
For PASCA gas project, Prime Minister Marape invited the developer Twinza to convene further meetings with the PNG State Negotiating Team as early as next year to progress this equally important project.
All in all, Prime Minister Marape was pleased with these series of meetings and the negotiations to date. He said the commencement of these projects are important as it will transform PNG’s economic landscape.
In doing so, there must be a win-win situation for all parties, especially the resource owners, State and the Developer.
“The Developers are outlaying significant capital and must gain a return on their investment,” said Prime Minister Marape. Prior to these meetings, Prime Minister Marape met with the President of the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum Mr Anthony Smare and his Executives, to discuss issues relating to the Conference arrangements.
Mr Smare informed that this year’s Conference was historic in that announcements of progress would be made by Prime Minister Marape on the FEED stages of Papua and P’ynyang.
The continued final stages of negotiations for Wafi-Golpu and reopening of Porgera would also be mentioned. Mr Smare then acknowledged the proactive participation by Government in promoting the country as a secure investment destination.
Prime Minister will also meet with the Chief Executive Officer of French Petroleum Giant, Total Energies, on the margins of the Mining Conference, before he returns to PNG on Tuesday 06th December 2022.
Prime Minister also highly urged for investors, especially Santos, to reinvest in its Refinery to process petrochemical products such as petrol, diesel, kerosene and Jet A1 gas to meet our domestic energy security issues.