Lae port upgrade reaches milestone, Respol acquires Talisman Energy, and PNG forecast for significant economic growth. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Lae Port. Credit: ADB

The first stage of Lae’s port upgrade is complete. New facilities include a tidal basin, a multipurpose berth, and terminal works including buildings, storage areas, roads, drainage, water, electricity and sewerage services.

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Spanish energy company Respol is acquiring Canada’s fifth largest independent miner, Talisman Energy, whose share prices fell by nearly two-thirds because of its unprofitable North Sea operations. Analysts say Respsol is paying a premium for Talisman at US$8.3 billion, which includes US$4.7 billion of Talisman’s debt. Talisman has significant petroleum exploration leases in PNG.

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Papua New Guinea is expected to lead the way globally when it comes to economic growth in 2015, according the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). While the world economy has been forecast to expand by 2.9% in 2015, EIU has predicted that PNG’s economy will expand by 15%, almost double the rate of any other country.

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Anglo American and Highlands Pacific plan to finalise their proposed joint venture and farm-in agreements for the Star Mountains copper-gold project in Western Province in early February.

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The first PNG LNG project custom-built ship has been named in a ceremony at Hudong Shipyard in China. The LNG carrier, named Papua, was built by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group, and can carry about 172,000 cubic metres of LNG.

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Philippine Airlines (PAL) has applied to fly to Port Moresby from Manila, using the seat allocation not currently being used by the budget airline Cebu Air.

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The Pacific Islands Tuna Industry Association says the Western and Central Pacific FisheriesCommission doesn’t have the confidence of its members to manage the Pacific’s tuna fisheries, following the lack of substantial progress over dealing with dwindling tuna stocks at last year’s meeting.

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Newcrest Mining will split the development of its Golpu gold and copper project joint venture with Harmony Gold, near Lae, into two stages, The first stage involves a feasibility study during 2015 will target the higher value portion of the ore body and is forecast to cost US$2.3 billion.

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Crater Gold has begun operations at Crater Mountain, 50km from Goroka in Eastern Highlands Province. The company anticipates extracting about 10,000 ounces of gold in the first 12 months of operation at a cost of below US$400 per ounce.

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Gold analysts believe that the long-term outlook for the precious metal is stable, with Goldman Sachs setting its long-term forecast at $US1,200 an ounce for the next three years.

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National Petroleum Company of Papua New Guinea (NCPC) has bought Cue PNG Oil Co for US$7m (K 18 m) from Cue Energy Resouces.

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Manus Governor Charlie Benjamin and Australian High Commissioner Deborah Stokes reopen Manus Provincial Market

The Manus Provincial Market has been reopened by Manus Governor, Charlie Benjamin, and Australia’s High Commissioner to PNG, Deborah Stokes, following a K7.2 million redevelopment and now features 740 vendor points.

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The PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum has launched the world’s first bilingual educational online resource on PNG minerals and petroleum. The site can be accessed on www.png.oresomeresources.com

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The National Executive Council has approved the free transfer of 33% equity in Ok Tedi Mining to the people of Western Province.

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The Institute of Banking and Business Management (IBBM) has announced a 50% discount on all women enrolment in 2015.

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Demand for rubber from Western Province is high due to increased use in building foundations and tyres for mines, trucks and other things, according to the Ok Tedi Development Foundation (OTDF).

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Santos will slash its projected 2015 spending by a quarter in the wake of falling oil prices.

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InterOil has announced an oil discovery at its Bobcat-1 exploration well, about 30km north-west of Elk-Antelope.

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British gas giant BG Gas has successfully converted natural gas from coal seams to liquefied natural gas, ready for export from its Curtis LNG project off Gladstone in Queensland. Three Curtis Island plants will account for roughly eight per cent of global LNG production. Gas will be exported to China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and elsewhere in Asia.

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The Department of National Planning and Monitoring has forecast that the PNG Government’s revenue will increase by K9.7 billion in 2030 if the Elk-Antelope LNG project starts before then.

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The Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) has appointed rugby league star Adrian Lam to be PNG’s coffee global ambassador. The CIC will open a new office in Sydney.

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The K95,000 tuna.Credit: Bloomberg

And finally, a giant bluefin tuna sold for more than K95,000 in the first auction of the year at a Tokyo fish market. Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the firm who won the bidding, said he was ‘surprised to win the bid at such a low price’.