PNGBLOGS

by MARK PARAKISAN S ensitive questions to break out the truth: WHY WAS PETER O'NEILL SO DESPERATE TO SECURE THE UBS LOAN? THE BEANS ARE SPILLING OUT. The very sad details about the UBS loan has been revealed. Knowing all this, one starts wondering why from all accounts, Peter O'Neill expressed more than happiness when the deal with through and the Oil Search shares were bought. Witne sses say he was overjoyed. Overjoyed? Anyone who knows Peter O'Neill knows that he is a man of few outward emotions. Yet, the UBS deal obviously meant something big to him. Very very big. There are 2 very obvious possibilities: Peter O'Neill was either receiving the proceeds of corrupt commissions, or he was profiting greatly off selling shares of Oil Search as the UBS loan co-occurred with the peak Oil Search price. "Corrupt commissions" are when someone with insider knowledge sets up a crony (or a relative) to be in charge of facilitating

OP/ED The 11th Mining and Petroleum Conference in Sydney, Australia kicked off yesterday. And in a packed room, PNG’s Oil Search Limited, a major partner in the LNG project, shocked the experts and government officials including ministers from both countries that it has spent a whopping K11.931 billion in oil benefits between 1992 and 2009. And that is nothing on the ground to show for this money, the company says. That is the verdict from oil industry supremo Dr Peter Botten of Oil Search Limited who said there was “no significant appropriate improvements in living standards” had occurred to Papua New Guineans from billions of kina received by landowners, provincial governments and the national government as resource benefits over the last 17 years. Today we are told some 200 people have died from cholera in Western Province. Apart from Cholera, TB, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Cancer and many other diseases are killing our people. The National Department of Health has admitted that our health

OP/ED The 11th Mining and Petroleum Conference in Sydney, Australia kicked off yesterday. And in a packed room, PNG’s Oil Search Limited, a major partner in the LNG project, shocked the experts and government officials including ministers from both countries that it has spent a whopping K11.931 billion in oil benefits between 1992 and 2009. And that is nothing on the ground to show for this money, the company says. That is the verdict from oil industry supremo Dr Peter Botten of Oil Search Limited who said there was “no significant appropriate improvements in living standards” had occurred to Papua New Guineans from billions of kina received by landowners, provincial governments and the national government as resource benefits over the last 17 years. Today we are told some 200 people have died from cholera in Western Province. Apart from Cholera, TB, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Cancer and many other diseases are killing our people. The National Department of Health has admitted that our heal