Prime Minister Hon. James Marape yesterday commended and thanked the leadership of China for allowing for a very positive engagement to expand their country’s ongoing interest in Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas sector, particularly in two of our biggest gas projects coming up – Papua LNG and P’nyang.
The Prime Minister said this in relation to the negotiations between his team and China’s giant petroleum company, Sinopec, held on Saturday 5 February 2022 in Beijing.
PM Marape also thanked and commended his Minister for Petroleum and Energy Hon. Kerenga Kua and Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd Managing-Director Wapu Sonk who led the negotiations on his behalf with the senior vice president of Sinopec on Saturday 5 February 2022.
The meeting discussed Papua New Guinea’s petroleum sector and Sinopec’s involvement in the upstream and downstream opportunities in PNG, including the company’s interest to buy LNG from Papua LNG and P’yang Gas.
“I express our deep gratitude to both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang for asking Sinopec to meet with our Petroleum Minister and MD Sonk. The meeting has turned out very well with Sinopec indicating it would look at buying more gas from Papua LNG, P’nyang and others we may have in the pipeline,” said Prime Minister Marape in Port Moresby yesterday.
“Our intent for the trip to China was to promote our government’s move into downstream processing, a message that was received well and supported in full by Premier Li during my own virtual meeting with him, leading to him committing his government’s full assurance.”
“It was very unfortunate that the scheduled meeting on Friday with President Xi had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the meeting the next day with Premier Li went well, for which I am grateful.”
“I am pleased with the outcome as we look forward to having our own leading petroleum company, Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd, partner with Sinopec to progress the discussions into practical solutions for both our countries,” said the Prime Minister.
Sinopec is a foundation LNG buyer of PNG LNG on long-term contract of up to 20 years and with this re-engagement with PNG, will be extending its interest in PNG oil and gas. Sinopec is acronym for China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation.
The company is the biggest supplier of oil and petrochemical products in China and one of the biggest in the world, and is listed as a state-owned enterprise.