The Government has recently appointed Mr. Johnson Pundari as the new Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Kumul Petroleum Park Authority (KPPA). The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru, who is the Minister responsible for KPPA, thanked the Government for appointing a very competent and seasoned Acting CEO to take over the management of KPPA.
“The immediate task of Mr. Pundari is to find out exactly the land KPPA has and to give strategic options to the Government on what to do with that land in terms of the way forward. We cannot continue to sit on this land,” said Minister Maru.
The KPPA land was initially designated for downstream processing of LNG. However, the Project Development Agreement for the PNG LNG Project did not allow for Domestic Market Obligation (DMO).
“The Papua LNG Project will have 5 percent DMO, however, the processing plant must be located in Gulf Province because the gas belongs to them. Apart from Papua LNG, there is also the Pasca A Gas Project, Wildebeest Development Project and the Stranded Field Development in Gulf. With all the gas reserves in the province into the future, Gulf rightly should have the processing plant- this will be a very important impact project for them. Hence, KPPA land can be alternately used to build a major industrial park for the city as a Special Economic Zone, especially for the manufacturing sector to drive export processing and import replacement industries due to close proximity of the new wharf,” said Minister Maru.
“These are some of the strategic options that the new Acting CEO will look into. He has been tasked to submit his plans to the Government in three months,” he added.