Officials sent to negotiate with Hides landowners over non-payment of royalties from PNG LNG project, Ok Tedi earns K623 million since March, and PNG Post pays K500,000 in dividends. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Petroleum and Energy Minister Nixon Duban says the government has sent officials to negotiate with landowners after they shut down all PNG LNG project sites, including the Hides to Porgera power plant. Radio Australia reports they are claiming K1 billion in royalties from LNG income. Duban said at a media conference, royalties and development levies for landowners will be released as soon as clan vetting was completed. Operator ExxonMobil said its facilities were still operating.

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The Ok Tedi Mining Company has made 12 export shipments since resuming operations in March, bringing more than US$200 million (K623 million) into PNG during the period, according to CEO, Peter Graham.

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Post PNG’s Maxwell Paiya

State-owned Post PNG chairman Maxwell Paiya has told The National the company has paid K500,000 to its shareholder in July. He says Post PNG is partnering with international logistics companies like DB Schenker in Australia, and Singapore Post subsidiary logistics company ITL, because logistics ‘is our biggest revenue earner’.

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Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says he will make a statement in Parliament within two weeks regarding the government’s shareholding in the Ok Tedi and Panguna mines.

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Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hong Kong property developer, Shin Kong Pacific Investment Limited. The MoU is to explore the construction and development of a five-star hotel property in Port Moresby consisting of up to 500 rooms.

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PNG’s telecommunications regulator, the National Information & Communications Technology Authority, has issued a tender for the provision of additional 3G services, financed by the International Development Association (IDA) and forming part of the Rural Communications Project.

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Pacific Trade Adviser, Ed Kessie

Trade Minister Richard Maru says PNG ‘is not interested’ in participating in the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER Plus). Chief Trade Advisor on PACER Plus, Edwini Kessie, was reported to have said the announcement was a huge surprise as PNG had been a part of PACER Plus negotiations since 2009 and had led many of the negotiations.

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The World Food Program estimates more than 200,000 Papua New Guineans are still in need of food aid, despite the drought ending. WFP Emergency Coordinator Mats Persson says that while the El Nino weather event is officially over, many families still have months to wait before their gardens produce food.

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Australian rice growers fear losing their market in PNG to Indonesia, The Australian reports. It is claimed that the PNG market is Australia’s largest rice export market, worth about A$80 million (K194 million) a year, which is almost a quarter of the Australian industry’s earnings.

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And finally, New Zealand’s HMNZS Otago has uncovered 40 commercial fishing operators without fishing licences and catching sharks without declaring it, during a two-month patrol of fisheries in the Pacific. Newshub reports say that the vessels breaching the law were mostly Chinese and Taiwanese.