Papua New Guinea will now implement the EITI Standard, which will ensure more transparency of payments to the government from the oil, gas and mining companies in the country.
Papua New Guinea has significant copper and gold deposits and an estimated 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. EITI Chair Clare Short said “I am encouraged by the commitment of the government of Papua New Guinea to more transparent management of the country’s natural resources for the benefit of its people.”
As an EITI Candidate country, Papua New Guinea has to start disclosing payments and other data about its extractives sector, including information on license holders and license allocations, production data and other contextual information about the extractive industry. Papua New Guinea needs to meet all of the requirements in the EITI Standard within three years to become EITI Compliant.
Greg Anderson, Executive Director of the Chamber of Mines noted that “EITI implementation demonstrates that PNG is a world-class extractives sector and it comes at a critical time in PNG’s development with the first LNG deliveries scheduled to begin in 2014.”
Further, Emily Taule, Executive Director of PNG Transparency International, also welcomed the Board’s decision, stating that “the EITI information will enable the public, with the support of organisations like TI to better hold the Government to account in its management of our natural resources."
"The World Bank applauds the Papua New Guinea Government's commitment to enhancing the transparency of its extractives sector and looks forward to supporting the EITI process through the Multi-Donor Trust Fund*," said Paulo de Sa, Manager, Oil, Gas, Mining Unit of the Sustainable Energy Department of the World Bank.
The decision of the Board on the status of Papua New Guinea in full:
The EITI Board admits Papua New Guinea as an EITI Candidate country on 19 March 2014. In accordance with the EITI Standard and associated transitional arrangements, Papua New Guinea is required to publish its first EITI Report within two years of becoming a Candidate (by 19 March 2016).If the EITI Report is not published by this deadline, Papua New Guinea will be suspended. Validation will commence within three years of becoming a Candidate (by 19 March 2017). In accordance with requirement 1.6c, the MSG is required to publish an annual activity report for 2014 by 1 July 2015.
For further information about the EITI in Papua New Guinea, please visit www.eiti.org/papua-new-guinea.
* EITI Multi-Donor Trust Fund facilitates grants to Papua New Guinea and other developing countries implementing EITI. EITI MDTF is administered by the World Bank and supported by 15 donor countries.
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