A common thread to Papua New Guinea’s two largest energy projects to date – the PNG liquified natural gas (LNG) mega-project and the upcoming Elk-Antelope play – is that while both are now controlled by energy supermajors Exxon and Total, neither was originally discovered by their current operators. Like the development of new “elephant” projects across the globe, exploration for new major…
Facing extreme risks from natural disasters, as a result of the country’s location on the geological “Ring of Fire”, insurance is a much-needed service in Papua New Guinea. PNG has frequent earthquakes and is home to a number of active volcanoes. The city of Rabaul was destroyed by volcanic eruptions in 1934 and again in 1994. In 2014, one of the volcanoes in the area (Tavurvur) erupted again.…
Continued economic growth in recent years is driving demand for electricity across PNG, straining the capability of the country’s primary grid networks. The widely dispersed population and geographic challenges continue to pose formidable barriers to increasing electrification, while the small but growing capacity serving the main urban areas is in need of expansion to meet growing power needs. Total…
The most unique and potentially profitable mining operation in Papua New Guinea is moving forward again after a funding dispute between Toronto-listed Nautilus Minerals and the PNG government initially slowed development of the underwater mining project following lease approval in 2011. The technically challenging venture, dubbed Solwara 1, employs a range of new proprietary techniques and purpose-built…
When the global economic downturn lowered demand for raw materials and depressed commodity prices, the mining sector as a whole was forced to reckon with a rapidly changing paradigm wreaking havoc on its collective balance sheets. Ripples from this slowdown continue to buffet the industry today, including in Papua New Guinea, as softer commodity price declines, exacerbated by the strength of the US…
The country’s limited energy needs and its rapidly expanding supply of gas have led policymakers to pursue the somewhat obvious path of focusing on the export market via shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Although the price of energy has declined considerably since the initial plans for the Papua New Guinea LNG project were first drawn up, gas remains the country’s top foreign currency earner,…
The battle for dominance over the telecommunications sector between state-owned Telikom Papua New Guinea and private operator Digicel is extending into the media space, with the two operators expanding their offering into the free-to-air television market. While Telikom’s recent acquisition of commercial television station EMTV and Digicel’s launch of TVWAN appear to be tangential moves, the strategic…
For a country that relies heavily on hydrocarbons exports as a major revenue stream, Papua New Guinea has an electricity sector surprisingly reliant on renewable energy. This is more from necessity than from any overriding imperative to develop clean energy; PNG has little in the way of tailored incentives like feed-in tariffs or a “green certificate” scheme for producers of clean energy. Instead,…
Although Papua New Guinea’s mountainous topography and existing digital infrastructure gap have been a major impediment to the expansion of internet coverage, satellite and microwave technology are creating promising opportunities for service providers. The government has already moved to create a microwave link for its planned National Broadband Network (NBN). At the same time, satellite broadband…
The recent surge of natural resources out of Papua New Guinea, along with the inflow of manpower and material needed to develop industrial infrastructure, is fuelling demand for transportation and logistics services internally and internationally. Although the country lacks established international trade hubs and the associated scales of economy, the lure of PNG’s lucrative resources remains incentive…
