Woodside talks to National Petroleum Company, ratings agency expects oil prices to fall further, and illegal logging continues, says Oro Governor, Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Woodside Petroleum may consider a joint venture with PNG’s National Petroleum Company after its CEO, Peter Coleman, met with NPCP chairman, Frank Kramer, and Managing Director, Wapu Sonk.

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Standard and Poor’s has cut its forecasts for Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil and Henry Hub gas saying the recent decline in prices signals a prolonged recovery for the commodity. The new prices assumptions are US$50 per barrel for Brent (down US$5) US$45/bbl for WTI (down US$5), while Henry Hub will remain US$2.75 per million btu for the remainder of 2015.

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Oro Province Governor, Gary Juff

Illegal logging and deforestation continues in Papua New Guinea (PNG) under the failed Special Agriculture and Business Lease (SABL) concept, according to Oro Governor, Gary Juffa.

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The Australian Government has agreed to fund a Pacific Business Investment Facility with A$15 million (K30 million) to help businesses in the region access commercial finance for growth, diversification or consolidation. The ADB is providing A$1.5 million (K3 million) and will administer the fund.

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The Immigration Department is tightening its control on foreigners entering and working in the country to address the increasing number of overstayers, according to Chief Migration Officer Mataio Rabura. Cabinet has approved a new visa class, Designated Event Visa, for foreigners attending national, regional or international events.

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Gold miner Newcrest has boosted its CEO’s pay packet to A$5.7 million (K11.46 million) despite last year coming under fire from shareholders for excessive pay. In its annual report for 2014/15, Newcrest said Mr Biswas had a successful first year in the job, increasing production, cash flow and the company’s share price and lowering costs and debt. Newcrest made a A$546 million (K1.1 billion) profit after the previous year’s A$2.2 billion (K4.42 billion) loss.

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The national broadcaster, NBC, has stepped up competition with EMTV and TVWAN (Digicel), with a 6pm, one-hour flagship television news service, simulcast across the NBC radio network reaching a potential audience of more than 5 million.

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Oil Search has signed a statement of intent with PNG Power Limited to proceed on the next phase of the Ramu Power Project. There are five parts involved: a biomass project of up to 30MW in the Markham Valley, Morobe Province; a 2MW gas-fired power project, with potential to ramp up to 65 MW, located near Hides; installing a 45 km transmission line from the Oil Search Hides Gas-to-Electricity Processing Plant to the Tari Power Station; assisting PPL in designing a low cost rural connections rollout plan to households in the Hela and Southern Highlands Provinces; Providing diesel to PPL’s power plant in Tari.

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Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch

Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch has flagged changes to the tax system. While saying it was ‘premature’ to comment on the tax review report, he noted: ‘In PNG, a big proportion of company tax comes from a relatively small number of companies’.

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Former Australian army chief Lieutenant-General David Morrison will air his views on creating cultural change towards gender issues during the Pathways to Parity symposiums in Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane next month. The event is aimed at Australian businesses across the finance, legal, education and resources sectors which operate in PNG.

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The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) has released a draft report titled ‘2015 Rice Industry Pricing Review’ for public review. The draft report is available online via the ICCC website.

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The Conservation Environment and Protection Authority has approved the Operational Environment Management Plan of the Ramu nickel & cobalt project in Madang. The mine is expected to reach full capacity in 2016.

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Copper prices fell to a six-year low after expectations of more data showing a slowdown in China, which accounts for 40% of demand. Copper for December sank US$2.2515 (K6.46) a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Fiji’s Fisheries Minister, Osea Naiqamu, has told the Pacific Tuna Forum it is time for a total restructure of the tuna industry in the Pacific, saying ‘maybe we need to reduce the number of distant water fishing nation’s vessels that fish in our region as well as the overall number of fleets’.

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The snubfin dolphin. Credit: Dr Isabel Beasley

And finally, the newly discovered Australian snubfin dolphin has also been found in waters off southern PNG, according to James Cook University’s Dr Isabel Beasley. Her research has been funded through the PNG LNG Community Investment Program and the Australian Marine Mammal Centre. It was previously thought that only Irrawaddy dolphins occurred off southern Papua New Guinea.