EITI Board recognises Papua New Guinea’s achievements in improvingnatural resource governance EITI Board recognises Papua New Guinea’s achievements in improvingnatural resource governancePapua New Guinea achieves meaningful progress in EITI implementation, but further institutionalreforms are necessary. At its meeting in Dakar on 30 October 2018, the EITI Board decided that Papua New Guinea (PNG)has made meaningful progress in implementing the EITI Standard. The Board recognised PNG’sefforts in implementing reforms to address weaknesses in government systems and in improving thelevel of transparency on state participation in the country’s extractive industries.“The EITI is having a real impact in Papua New Guinea: citizens can now see how therevenues from oil and gas projects are being distributed and how the government ismanaging mining revenues through trust accounts”, said Fredrik Reinfeldt, chair of theEITI. “The process has improved the petroleum register and shone a light on the state’sparticipation in the sector. I welcome the news that stakeholders will increasingly useEITI to inform investment decisions and to assess the sector’s contribution to theeconomy.”

  The government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (PNG) committed to implement the EITI on14 March 2013 by through National Executive Council (NEC) Decision 90/2013. An interim Multi-StakeholderGroup (MSG) was formed in 2012 and a permanent MSG was appointed in November 2013. The country was accepted as an EITI Candidate on 19 March 2014 at the EITI Board’s meeting in Oslo.On 25 October 2016, the Board agreed that PNG’s Validation under the 2016 EITI Standard would commenceon 1 April 2018. This report presented the findings and initial assessment of the International Secretariat’sdata gathering and stakeholder consultations.

PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea’s prominent petroleum company, Oil Search Ltd merger into Santos has been welcomed by the PNG Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PNGEITI). PNGEITI hailed the merger  as a milestone achievement for both companies who are prominent and competitive players in the PNG petroleum space. “The smooth transitioning of this merger arrangement demonstrates an independent and vibrant regulatory environment in Papua New Guinea where business can operate free of undue control and influence” PNG EITI Head of National Secretariat Lucas Alkan commented. Santos Limited  on Friday 17th December, 2021 announced on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) that the merger of Santos and Oil Search Limited (Oil Search) was effected on the same day. Accordingly, Santos has acquired 100 per cent of the issued capital in Oil Search from Oil Search shareholders. “Papua New Guinea EITI is happy to witness this merger of two strong companies and we believe that this arrangement will bring enhanced benefits for the shareholders and the economy. “Oil Search has been a founding member of the PNG EITI Multi Stakeholder Group (MSG) and has played significant roles in the EITI implementation process in Papua New Guinea. “We thank Oil Search as a company for the support PNGEITI enjoyed for the last eight years and we look forward to welcoming Santos, another significant player in the industry now with boosted capacity and as second biggest player in the PNGLNG project and other significant projects that are in the pipeline- to the PNGEITI MSG,” Mr. Alkan said. “We also extend our warm congratulations to  MSG representative  Mr. Musje Werror, Managing Director Ok Tedi Mining Ltd for being appointed to the Santos board as non-executive director  and we look forward to working with him in that capacity as well going forward. “ Mr. Alkan added.