InterOil: Work Conditions will not be affected under new name

It will be business as usual under Puma Energy for all InterOil employees after the energy firm purchased InterOil Products Ltd.

InterOil Products Ltd general manager Peter Diezmann addressed employees this week in Lae, Morobe and Port Moresby about Puma Energy’s recent acquisition of the company’s assets.

Puma Energy purchased InterOil’s downstream assets and refinery facilities on June 30, making it a major supplier of fuel in Papua New Guinea. 

The company executives met with employees in Lae on Wednesday.

Puma Energy chief executive officer Pierre Eladari said: “We believe strongly in Papua New Guinea and its future growth prospects, and see many opportunities for continued investment in infrastructure and in the skills of our employees.” 

Eladari and Diezmann said the transition period would not result in job cuts, changes in employment contracts signed with InterOil, or entitlements issued for the time served with InterOil. 

Diezmann said the company would stay the same and business would continue as usual. He said the acquisition was just a change in ownership. 

“Yesterday, we were InterOil Products Ltd. Today we are Puma Energy,” Diezmann said. 

He said their years of service with InterOil Products would not be affected with the change, which had been hailed by the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

“If you have been serving InterOil for ten years as of July 1, 2014 and for whatever reason you move on from us in July 1, 2015, your 11 years of service will be appropriately acknowledged.” 

Eladari also affirmed the need to keep the successful InterOil downstream team as an integral part of the Puma Energy brand. 

“We have been impressed by InterOil’s business, its strategic asset base, its customer portfolio and the quality of its management and people,”Eladari said. 

InterOil’s choice to accept this offer made by Puma Energy will allow InterOil to focus more on its upstream businesses which have become a core priority to the company’s growth.