THE government has given a six (6) day period to the two negotiating parties in the Pasca A gas agreement to reach a conclusion of negotiations before the State hands down its stance on whether the Pasca A agreement will go forward or not.
Petroleum Minister Kerenga Kua issued the ultimatum when responding to questions without notice in Parliament by the Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta to clarify and give an assurance on the status of the Pasca A project in the Gulf province.
Minister Kua told Parliament that negotiations has reached the point where they have to fix what has to be the State take which is the core part of the negotiations.
“What is in dispute is the accelerate bits and pieces that should not be a deal breaker,” Kua said.
Kua strongly urged that negotiations has to stop somewhere between “The State Negotiating Team (SNT) representing the Government in the negotiations with the Twinza Oil (PNG) as the developer of the Pasca A project to get into serious of discussions.
“By the 12th of August, they must make some meaningful progress. If they do not then the State does have alternative options if they do not co-operate.
“Sometimes, we have to stand firm with our decisions. Enough is enough and we must not allow a developer to win.
“After the 16th of August, the Government will make a stand on whether to continue with the negotiations or to suspend or terminate the Pasca A agreement,” Minister Kua said.
The core agreement of the negotiations which was announced to the public and the media on the 13th of July was said to go through a process of “page turn”, which involves the legal process involving lawyers to go through the agreement in order to agree to each paragraphs and pages to settle the whole document to be finalized on the proposed date which was the 29th of July.
Minister Kua clarified that the State Negotiating Team (SNT) and the government as part of the process got into consultation with the Governor of the Bank of Papua New Guinea, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue Commission and the Secretary for Treasury to make necessary analysis needed for the agreement.
He said the final agreement after the consultations on the 29th of July, were then passed on to the Twinza team to see through before the agreement is signed.
“We were expecting Twinza to go through the agreement and get back to the State negotiating team as part of the ongoing negotiations which will point out if they agree or disagree with the agreement.
“Twinza, however failed to get back to SNT on their disagreements rather went to the media without failing to get back to the chairman of SNT on the disagreed part of the agreement which would have been the best way to address the issue,” Minister Kua said.
He said that the State Solicitor Daniel Rolpagarea in a meeting with the Prime Minister and the Minister responsible has now filed a letter of “confidentiality and non-discloser agreement” that must be signed between Twinza and the SNT so that anyone of them will not run to the media while the negotiations is in progress.
Minister Kua further clarified that he, as the Minister responsible including the Prime Minister and other Parliamentary Members are not part of the State Negotiating Team saying that they only act upon decisions as directed by the SNT members.
Minister Kua also apologised to the people of PNG and Gulf Province assuring that once the agreement has reached its final product that is when the announcement will be made.