Photo Credit: Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia
A non-disclosure agreement between Twinza Oil and the state will be signed soon to keep information about the Pasca A project private until a final decision is reached.
Following a recent public announcement by Twinza stating that the state has not honoured its pledge for the offshore gas project, State solicitor Daniel Rolpagarea proposed this suggestion.
When responding to Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta about the status of this gas project agreement, Minister for Petroleum Kerenga Kua told Parliament that negotiations are an important aspect of projects like Pasca A, which require the analysis of relevant government agency heads to advise government through the State Negotiating Team before signing.
Kua also expressed regret to the developer for the state's failure to achieve the project's planned schedule, revealed last month.
He stated that the state and developer have already agreed on the conditions, which include the state's stake, which is the most important aspect of the discussions, but that the details of those agreements would be handled later.
“That’s where the lawyers become involved and they write up the full draft agreement and then does a page turn and agree on each paragraph and page and settle the whole document,” he said.
“Last Friday the SNT received the agreement a week early and consulted the BPNG Governor, IRC Commissioner and get advice from Treasury Secretary among others to analyse and send advice to the state solicitor, state solicitor will see their comments and relay that into the gas agreement.”
Twinza was supposed to sit down with the agreement and go back to the SNT to discuss their issues from the draft agreement, according to Kua, but instead, the developer took their gripe to the media.
“I have written a letter on Prime Minister’s request to send to Twinza today.
“Again encouraging them to move away from the media.
“We met with SNT and state solicitor general Daniel Rolpagarea who was present and the state solicitor proposed that he will prepare confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement that must be signed between Twinza and the state.
“This is so that people won’t run to the media while the negotiations are in progress,” he said.
“Once we have a final product now, that’s when the announcement will be made so state solicitor is preparing that to be signed as the negotiations pick up again.
“We have given them 6 days for them to get into serious discussions (SNT and Twinza) by the 16th of August 2021 they must make some meaningful progress because if they don’t after the 16th we will decide whether we continue the negotiations or we suspend or terminate it.”
Reference: Yafoi, Melisha. Post-Courier (12 August 2021). “Twinza, State To Sign Non-Disclosure Pact”.
