By GEORGINA MICHAEL
KUMUL Petroleum Holdings Ltd (KPHL) has paid a K400 million dividend to the State, bringing its total direct payments to the Government to nearly K1 billion this year.
The dividend was presented at the Prime Minister’s Office in Port Moresby today, following Parliament’s sitting. The presentation was witnessed by State Enterprises Trustee Delegate Minister William Duma, Petroleum Minister Jimmy Maladina, KPHL Chairman Ambassador Isaac Lupari, company management and former Petroleum Minister Arthur Somare.
Minister Duma welcomed members witnessing the occasion and described the occasion as another important historical occasion which KPHL delivered during tough economic times.
He commended the leadership of Prime Minister Marape, Chairman Lupari, Minister Maladina and management including the KPHL Acting MD Luke Liria.
“KPHL has always been able to deliver dividends in the vicinity of over K4 billion and about K1.8 billion in tax over the years, a very good, strong performance by our company. This sort of things only happen when we have very good, strong leadership,” Minister Duma commented.
Presenting the cheque, Chairman Lupari said the K400 million is an interim dividend for 2026.
“On behalf of the Board, management and staff of Kumul Petroleum, it is my privilege to present to the State our shareholder, our interim dividend payment of K400 million for year 2026,” Mr Lupari said.
He said with K150 million advanced last December, KPHL’s 2026 dividends now total K550 million.
“With the inclusion of K480 million that we paid in tax advance, Kumul has paid almost K1 billion directly to the State this year. This is following K700 million that was paid last year in dividend in 2025,” he said.
Mr Lupari said it is an interim payment and KPHL will make further payments based on its approved Annual Operating Plan, subject to due diligence and solvency.
Petroleum Minister Hon. Jimmy Maladina thanked PNG LNG joint venture partners for operating a superb national asset delivering billions in dividends to the country.
“On that ground, we have seen all these dividends coming to Papua New Guinea and the country benefiting right through the budget process. A special thank you to ExxonMobil as operators,” Minister Maladina said.
He said ExxonMobil will also be operator for Papua LNG, the second most important project.
“My job as regulator is making sure Papua LNG comes on stream on a timely basis. We have a deadline on December 15th of this year to have FID. That commences the bank signing off and the project commences. We need to meet that deadline,” he said.
Prime Minister James Marape accepted and welcomed the K400million and said the dividend comes at a critical time when Government needs to complete fuel subsidy, finance El Nino relief and stay within its 2026 money plan.
Prime Minister Marape confirmed K150 million came early this year and K400 million now and commended KPHL for its restructuring and said return on investment from PNG LNG has been over K11 billion since first gas in 2014.