PNG Power’s APEC commitment, Oil Search’s strong result, and a loan agreement for Crater Gold Mining. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

PNG Power is aiming to provide quality power supply for the APEC Summit in Port Moresby next month. Acting Managing Director  Carolyn Blacklock reaffirmed that the Port Moresby transmission and distribution teams were working hard for quality supply and are ready for APEC. ‘We are using APEC as a motivation to step up to perfect supply,’ said Jeffrey Agona, the Manager of Port Moresby Transmission.

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Oil Search has reported a strong third quarter result, with total production of 7.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), in line with pre-earthquake levels, and revenue of US$475 million, the Company’s highest quarterly revenue since the fourth quarter of 2014. The company announcement states that Oil Search is approaches the end of 2018 in a robust financial position with US$1.4 billion in liquidity at 30 September 2018.

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Chainsaws being crushed by Customs at Lae Port. Source: Pisa Gumar, The National

Lae-based Stihl agent UMW Niugini Ltd and Customs have destroyed 79 fake Stihl chainsaws confiscated at Lae Port. The products were consigned to two companies in Lae and Wewak. Stihl manager key accounts sales and export Andrew Batson flew to Lae from Australia and confirmed that all 79 chainsaws were counterfeit and made in China.

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The Central Bank has started rolling out the Kina Automated Transfer System (Kats) which has helped reduce the clearance of cheque payments, says Governor Loi Bakani. In his presentation at the Australasian Law Reform Conference last week, he said the National Payment Systems Act passed by Parliament in 2013 had enabled this process. Cheques which previously took 14 days to clear should now clear in two days.

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Bank South Pacific Group chief executive Robin Fleming reportedly maintains all expansion works carried out in the eight countries in which it operates are internally funded. ‘The funding of expansion and upgrades (is undertaken) in those countries—for example if Tonga is doing upgrades to its branches it is all being fully funded by profit that is generated in Tonga,’ Fleming is reported as saying. The Group presented its third quarter performance for 2018, citing a K218 million profit after tax from its total K538 million revenue for the quarter alone. The profit was a reduction from the preceding quarter of K221 million.

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Innovative Agro Industry and several partners will reportedly be involved in a multi-million kina coffee project to be rolled out in Hela Province. A team from IAI was recently in Goroka , Eastern Highlands Province, to meet with officials from the Coffee Industry Corporation to discuss the project.

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Newcrest has announced its third quarter results.  Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Biswas, said Lihir’s gold production was impacted by lower mill throughput due to a series of planned maintenance shutdowns. Cadia’s operating and financial performance continued to improve, with higher production and a lower all-in-sustaining-costs (AISC) per ounce, both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.

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The recent tour of the Riverina rice-growing region of Australia has been hailed a success by the participating delegates from PNG. The tour provided PNG delegates the opportunity to see how commercial rice farming was done in Australia. Trukai Industries chief executive Greg Worthington-Eyre reportedly acknowledged the attendance of the Minister for Commerce and Industry Wera Mori, Vice-Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Henry Ame, and Western Governor Taboi Awi Yoto.

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Photograph of the week

Morobe landowner company NKW Fresh Produce has been supporting bee farmers of Menyamya by looking for markets to sell locally-produced Menyamya Honey, manager Scott King says. Source: The National