THE Government wants to acquire the Napa Napa refinery from Puma Energy as a long-term fuel and security strategy to protect the country from external fuel price fluctuations, it has been revealed.
Rural and Economic Development Minister Joseph Lelang, the chairman of the advisory committee looking into the fuel crisis, said that due to the problem, the Government would acquire the refinery.
However on Monday, the United States Embassy in Port Moresby told The National that the US company DGCI Corporation was negotiating with Puma Energy’s parent company Trafigura for a potential acquisition of the Puma facility at Napa Napa.
According to a US Embassy spokesperson, if the deal was finalised, PNG would see an improvement in fuel storage in Port Moresby.
The spokesperson said that since both entities were in a period of due diligence, they requested that the process must play out and to avoid interfering with the process.
The US had already committed K2 billion for the construction of a fuel storage project in PNG.
The DGCI is developing the fuel storage facility near the Napa Napa refinery at Papa, Central.
The facility when completed will have the capacity to store more than 1.6 million barrels (264 million litres) of fuel, offering PNG economic and strategic benefits, according to the contractor.
The refinery and the storage facility are close to each other which makes it convenient for shipment and distribution.
The project is implemented under the 2023 US-PNG defence cooperation agreement framework, which builds on collaboration between the two nations.
DGCI chairman Aziz Doraney said that the company was committed to building infrastructure that strengthened local capacity, created opportunity, and supported PNG’s development plans.
“This facility will not only strengthen PNG’s energy resilience but also cement the relationship between our two nations,” Doraney said.
“Together, we are building infrastructure that serves the needs of today and the promise of tomorrow.”
PNG’s crude oil, extracted from Kutubu, Gobe and Moron in Hela, are shipped to Singapore and processed, priced, and shipped back to PNG as finished products.
