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Showing posts with the label LNG

PNG IS IN A ECONOMIC RECESSION - LEADING ECONOMIST

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PNGBLOGS Papua New Guinea is in economic recession, according to leading Australian academic economist Paul Flanagan, who is an expert on PNG. This is revealed in his analysis (at his www.pngeconomics.org blog) of the latest official numbers from the Bank of Papua New Guinea and the National Statistics Office. The official numbers show Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch and Finance Minister James Marape are telling lies when they say the economic is healthy and everything is under control. Mr Flanagan says the recession began in early 2014, and the official numbers show that it is  continuing. This means Papua New Guineans’ standard of living has been falling since 2014. In other words, O’Neill has wasted the riches flowing from PNG LNG and the three years of high GDP growth he experienced when he became Prime Minister. Papua New Guineans are poorer today than they were at the start of 2014 because of O’Neill’s waste, corruption and mismanagement.   Fla

O’NEILL AND POWI SET UP LNG DEVELOPMENT LEVY SLUSH FUND

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by MICHAEL J PASSINGAN Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Southern Highlands Governor William Powi have set up a secret slush fund using the PNG LNG Development Levies intended for the Southern Highlands Provincial Government and LLGs. The money going into the slush fund is supposed to be paid by the PNG LNG operators direct to the Provincial Treasury. Instead O’Neill and Powi are diverting the cash into a secret account to be set up under NEC decision No. 70/2016 on 22 March this year. The decision was signed by Mr O’Neill, who is recognized internationally as the most corrupt politician in the Pacific. Grave fears are held for the security of the funds, which rightfully belong to the Southern Highlands Provincial Government and project landowners. The Development Levy is 2% of the wellhead value of all production from PNG LNG, and by now amounts to hundreds of millions of kina. The NEC decision states that the Provincial Government should set up the account with a “thi

PETER O’NEILL PLANNING TO RIP OFF PNG LNG LANDOWNERS - NOTHING COMING UNTIL 2019 - LEAKED SUBMISSION INSIDE

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by JACK TOAPELIS Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has broken his promise to PNG LNG landowners to support their purchase of 4.27% equity in the project. A leaked policy submission by the Prime Minister, Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch and Finance Minister Jame Marape says landowners will have to go it alone and raise their own funds to buy the equity. The Prime Minister had previously agreed to debt financing by NPCP/Kumul Petroleum for the landowners so they could pay for their equity. This promise was effected in NEC decision 208 of 2015 – now the Prime Minister wants to rescind that decision through his new policy submission. Virtually all the recommendations in the Prime Minister’s submission are in breach of the 2009 Kokopo Umbrella Benefit-Sharing Agreement. Indeed the O’Neill Government has always been in breach of the Kokopo UBSA, notably in making agreed payments to the UBSA participants. As Sir Michael Somare said in a statement late last year:  “This g

THE ILLEGAL UBS LOAN MATURES ON 13 JUNE 2016

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THE LNG LANDOWNERS OPPORTUNITY TO BUY 4.22 % EQUITY FROM THE STATE ENDS ON 30 JUNE 2016; WILL PETER O’NEILL FIND THE MONEY TO MEET THE OBLIGATIONS? by ANDRE BILAK STEVEN PNG is already having a serious cash flow problem, and nothing can be more evidenced than the Minister for Finance James Marape’s statement few weeks ago that all MPs (who supposed to receive K15m DSIP funds) will receive K1 million each for this year. The cash flow crisis is affecting business houses, government departments and households like never before. The Bank of Papua New Guinea has about less than US$1.4 billion in reserves against pending foreign exchange orders of around K4 billion plus and the situation is not improving any sooner. The endless cue for sending funds overseas is unbearable and killing many import reliant businesses in this import-reliant economy. Many learned experts in economic management have advised O’Neill, since early signs of doom emerged, to take remedial actions immedia

The King and Prince of Lies Continue to mislead Papua New Guineans on the state of Economy.

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by MICHAEL JOSEPH PASSINGAN Peter O’Neill remains the King of Lies. The Prince of Lies is his teaboy Isaac Lupari. Data released this month by the Bank of Papua New Guinea shows their statements about the price PNG receives for its LNG are completely untrue. Compare these statements with the truth as revealed by the central bank in the accompanying graph: "The drop in the oil price will not affect LNG revenues as we have forward contracts in place that are set at fixed pricing formula" - Peter O’Neill, January, 2015.” “[Polye claims] that Papua New Guinea will receive substantially less income from LNG sales and this is simply not true. PNG LNG exports and prices are predominantly locked into long-term forward sales contracts. In simple terms this means that PNG will receive the same price for LNG.” Isaac Lupari, December 2014. O’Neill and Lupari have told so many lies they no longer know what truth is. Their constant lying brings the Office of the Prime Mini

SO IS PNG BROKE?

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by BRYAN KRAMER The short answer is, Yes. This is evident following the O'Neill Government’s delayed payments of the public servant salaries last Wednesday. I was first made aware of the issue a week earlier when an article was posted on social media explaining that public servants would not be paid on time due to cash-flow crisis and that the Government would blame it on the payroll system. A week later its what exactly transpired. Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, Secretary of Treasury Dairi Vele, and Secretary of Finance Dr Ken Ngangan all claimed the delay was due to the payroll system and nothing to do with being broke. Secretary of Treasury Vele issued a public statement, "Papua New Guinea is not broke!” He added that the economy was estimated to have grown by 9.9 per cent last year, driven by the ramp up of the full year of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. He further explained PNG’s economic growth was among the highest in the wor

EXCITING TIMES YET CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR PNG EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY SECTOR

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by KOMBOL GIBSON   PNG is endowed with a $19bn oil and gas industry. The size of this industry is set to double and almost triple. It’s an exciting prospect for PNG but challenges remain for delivering that blessing to every man, woman and child in PNG. In fact the opposite is happening. PNG should be concerned. There is a large focus on Government-funded programmes in the Hela and Southern Highlands Provinces instead of a more equitable arrangement for all 21 Provinces in PNG. That is a story for another day and a subsequent article, but the upshot of this focus on Hela and SHP is that the vast majority of it ends up in the hands of elites from these Provinces that reside elsewhere, access health services in Port Moresby or overseas, send their children to school overseas, maintaining multiple wives and mistresses and invest in Port Moresby or overseas. So roughly 80% of funding that gets diverted to Hela and SHP ends up in the pockets of Ministers, MPs, senior public servants, a

WHERE ARE LANDOWNERS, LLGS AND PGS LNG EQUITY FUNDS KEPT?

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By Nemo Yalo: Principal of Nemo Lawyers   former Acting National Court Judge former Chief Legal Counsel for Ombudsman Commission There is in an ongoing public debate between the Government and the Opposition in Parliament regarding the receipt and application of the proceeds from the sale of the LNG. In its 2015 first half Environmental and Social Report, Exxon Mobil states that its US$19billion project loaded the 100th LNG shipment on LNG carrier Methane Spirit on 15 June 2015. The first LNG cargo was shipped on 25 May 2014 destined for Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. (TEPCO) in Japan delivered on 2 June 2014. The LNG Project is expected to produce nine (9) trillion cubic feet of gas over 30 years. It has the capacity to produce 6.9 million tonnes per year. The report reads in part: “The Papua, the first custom-built LNG carrier for EMPNG, arrived at the LNG Plant Marine Terminal on 22 February 2014 to begin loading its first cargo. The 172,000-cubic metre, 290-metre-long

THE VERY SAD STORY OF WHY THE KINA IS COLLAPSING

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by NRI INSIDER There was always something a little strange about the collapsing kin. First we were told by Peter O'Neill and his corrupt cronies Marape and Pruaitch that the kina wasn't going down or that the slide was only temporary. But as we saw days of kina sliding turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, that lie no longer worked. Today we have a clear graphical record of a slide in the kina that began nearly from the moment that Peter O'Neill was re-elected and took office again and has continued up to now. The Masters of Deception now admit this is the case but say that they've got everything under control. Most certainly not. If you look at the rate at which the kina has been declining against the US dollar in recent weeks you can see that the slide started becoming steeper than it was before. The Masters of Deception can lie all they want but the bare facts don't lie. An outright collapse of the kina to God knows what low levels is being pre

PNG ON THE BRINK OF GREEK TYPE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

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INSIDE INFORMATION By Carl of BPNG and Pat of Treasury Department Peter O’Neill, Patrick Pruaitch, James Marape, and Loi Bakani have not told Papua New Guineans the real causes of our economic crises and the effects that should be expected.   PNG’s economic crisis is far worse than what it appears and we are dumbfounded by the silence of the people in the know. Learned Papua New Guineans continue to zip their mouths and eyes whilst Prime Minister Peter O’Neill continue to peddle his lies across our simple minds. Two of us have compiled this report together for the love of our country. Most of these information are already available to the public. We hope that all equally concerned Papua New Guineans will be enlightened by this article, for an enlightened citizenry never remain silent. We have four interconnected yet separate problems on hand at the moment: Government Coffers without Money Bank of Papua New Guinea without Sufficient Foreign Reserves (Forex)