PM Marape launches the 16th PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum Conference 2022 in Sydney, Australia

The PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum Conference 2022 officially commenced today in Sydney, Australia.

About 1200 delegates are in attendance with many corporate organizations including the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) participating as exhibitors.

Prime Minister Hon James Marape when delivering his keynote speech, said Papua New Guinea like many other countries in the world has its own share of challenges when it comes to investment and business, but investors should not be discouraged by this situation.

He said this was because these challenges were similar to those found in many other investment jurisdictions around the world.

“You tell me where in the world does not have challenges?”

He said some of the current investors in the country had found out and experienced for themselves that the countries they had invested in before, had similar issues like PNG.

He said Total Energies and Santos were two of the investors now in PNG that had gone through these experiences and consequently return their investments to PNG.

PM Marape said PNG has had 100 years of experience in resource development in the mining and oil sectors. The government knows how to negotiate incentives, embrace and protect investors  and allow them to make a fair return on their investments. 

“Look around and ask for instance two of Australia’s biggest companies, Newcrest and Santos. See how their PNG investments and assets have added onto their total balance sheets. Look at Santos. It merged and subsumed Oil Search’s interest and assets in 2021 and in 2022, their gain in PNG LNG out-performed all their other investment portfolios, and they would have by now recovered costs,” said Hon Marape.

“This is a testament of the fact that my country is a good investment destination,” said Hon Marape.

President of the Chamber of Mines & Petroleum Anthony Smare, in his opening remarks, spoke about the important role of foreign investment in the resource sector which has positively impacted on the economic development of PNG over the years.

He said resource development and international investment and finance has played an extra ordinary role in Papua New Guinea’s development path economically and socially.

This is not surprising given the geological prospectivity of PNG. He said the best example of the impact of international direct foreign investment of GDP growth in PNG was demonstrated by the PNG LNG Project.

The LNG Project was led by ExxonMobil from the US with Australian and Japanese partners, supported by PNG’s own Kumul Petroleum, and LNG buyers from Asia primarily China, Korea and Japan. The USD22 billion project had an extra ordinary impact on the GDP of PNG, from project FEED in 2008, to first gas in 2014, the country’s GDP doubled from USD11 billion to USD22 billion. 

This is an important scenario for PNG to reflect on given the unique position which the government is in today. It is the first time that PNG can potentially deliver not just one, but four major resource projects to the tune of over USD30 billion in capital investments within a very short window. You have the Papua LNG with USD12 billion in capital cost, P’nyang with USD10 billion, the re-opening of Porgera and the Wafi-Golpu Copper/Gold project which could be around USD6 billion or potentially higher. If you add the Paska Gas Project USD2billion, you could be talking well over USD30 billion. And that is the impact on PNG’s current GDP which is around USD27-28 billion. It is almost certain that GDP of PNG will double from its present levels just from the completion/production of these projects.  

Mr Smare said it was very clear that international investments have had a catalysing impact on PNG’s economic development.

Photo: PM Honourable James Marape (MP), and President Smare addressing delegates today at the Hilton Hotel, Sydney.

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