Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital city has seen an increase in construction and building projects in recent years.

Driven by an economy that has grown by around 5 – 8% GDP per year for the last five years or so and predictions that this growth will not [...]]]> A Runaway Economy Spikes the City’s Skyline

Papua Hotel, now the tallest building in Port Moresby

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital city has seen an increase in construction and building projects in recent years.

Driven by an economy that has grown by around 5 – 8% GDP per year for the last five years or so and predictions that this growth will not ebb for a few years to come, many firms and individuals have been busy with their projects.

In Port Moresby, the once ‘small town’ aspect of the city is rapidly changing as new landmarks are set to dominate the Port Moresby skyline for many years to come.

See the pictures and captions below.

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Four student engineers entered Islands Petroleum’s new graduate program some 18 months ago of which two have officially started working for the company.  Company’s owner and general manager [...]]]> A first ever graduate program of a fuel company in PNG has seen engineering students at the University of Technology landing jobs just as they leave school.

Four student engineers entered Islands Petroleum’s new graduate program some 18 months ago of which two have officially started working for the company.  Company’s owner and general manager Paul Bluett described the graduate program as an opportunity for his company to give back to the community.

Islands Petroleum has had 30 years of experiences in fuel distribution in parts of the New Guinea islands region. It has recently opened up lubes branches in Port Moresby, Lae and Madang. Islands Petroleum is also the authorised distributor of Mobil lubricants in PNG.

The graduate program devotes company’s time, effort and resources to further train young engineers to be suitable for roles within Islands Petroleum. While the program saw the student engineers attached with engineering and construction projects, they were also trained on lubrication, Mobil products and the various lubes applications.

Final year mechanical engineering students Ellyard Koreari from Pomio, East New Britain and Mula La’a from Hula in the Central Province slipped on the blue overalls last Monday morning to enter the work site in Rabaul. Only this time, they will work side by side with senior engineers as full time employees of Islands Petroleum.  They were confident. They have worked on fuel projects and they were qualified lubes engineers ready to take on new challenges.

IP’s lubes engineer Raybon Tamegal had over the past months oversaw the transition of these young student engineers.
“They were eager to learn and have proven they wanted to work for Islands Petroleum,” he said. Mr Tamegal said the students had shown commitment to in-house training and to the several projects they have worked on.

Two new students under the graduate program for 2012 are Norman Hite from Milne Bay and William Painap from East New Britain. They are in their third year at Unitech studying mechanical engineering. They will commence work practical with the company over the Christmas break.

Mr Bluett, said the company was proud to assist in training young Papua New Guineans. He said the graduate program was to identify, support and train young people while they are still at universities. The general manager said the program also provided the trainees with secured jobs when they graduate.

Under the same program, Islands Petroleum has sponsored and recruited a business graduate from the University of Papua New Guinea to join its sales and marketing team. Sophina Dilu from Simbu province had just completed her final year of business management studies. She joined the workforce last month based at Islands Petroleum Port Moresby.

PNG Power CEO Tony Koiri said engineering teams from the Rouna plant (Port Moresby), Panda plant (Western Highlands), Lae and Port Moresby Head Quarters have been working to strip, clean, dry, screen and [...]]]> PNG Power engineers are working to get five flooded generators at Ramu One Power Station in Yonki online as soon as possible.

PNG Power CEO Tony Koiri said engineering teams from the Rouna plant (Port Moresby), Panda plant (Western Highlands), Lae and Port Moresby Head Quarters have been working to strip, clean, dry, screen and test each component of each generators before reassembling.

At the beginning of November, the Ramu 1 generators became flooded with water high as much as 10 metres.

Senior PPL electrical engineer Arua Mea said it was an unexpected disaster.

The Ramu One powerhouse generates more than 50 megawatts of electricity.

This is supplied to Morobe, Madang, Lae, Bulolo, parts of the Highlands as well as major resource projects in these areas

The floods have shut down the generators and effectively cut off power to these areas.

Current load shedding is from the Paunda plant in Western Highlands and will continue until Ramu One is back online, sometime in the near future.

Twenty-eight people died and four survived the crash 33km South-East of Madang Town.

According to the Papua New Guinea Investigation Commission, the Dash 8 has a turbine engine [...]]]> A preliminary report into the Airlines PNG Dash 8 crash has ruled that the crash on October 13 2011 was a result of ‘overspeed’ of both propellers.

Twenty-eight people died and four survived the crash 33km South-East of Madang Town.

According to the Papua New Guinea Investigation Commission, the Dash 8 has a turbine engine which runs through a gearbox. The ‘over speed’ caused self – destruction.

The Dash 8 belongs to Airlines PNG. The aircraft manufacturer is Bombardier. The Engine manufacturer is Pratt & Whitney.

If you think this report is very ambiguous with this over speed explanation, so do we. Please add your comments and insight below.

He has served the nation for forty years, beginning as an engineering cadet in 1971, through to 2011. He has served the PNG Waterboard now Water PNG since its establishment in [...]]]> Amo Mark is a legend in engineering in Papua New Guinea and a renowned leader in the water industry, both here and abroad.

He has served the nation for forty years, beginning as an engineering cadet in 1971, through to 2011. He has served the PNG Waterboard now Water PNG since its establishment in 1982. He witnessed the water authority undergo several name changes starting with the Water and Sanitation Board under the Department of Works, then The Waterboard to PNG Waterboard and recently Water PNG, under a new corporate structure that includes a new name, logo, slogan and management restructure.

Young Amo on Graduation Day

Mr Mark, who was Chief Operating Officer of Water PNG, has a long and extensive career in project engineering that began in 1975 when he graduated from the University of Technology, Lae with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering.

The young 24-year-old Milne Bay man was married two years earlier in 1973 to Monica Moimoi and so had a new family to take care off and his career to grow as well.

He didn’t hold back, joining the Department of Works in Alotau as a Graduate Engineer in 1975.

Two years later, he took his family and relocated to the cool highlands, to become project manager with the Department of Works in Goroka. This was 1975, the year PNG celebrated its Independence.

In 1980, he joined the private sector, becoming Assistant Resident Engineer with Binnie & Partners in Madang.

Two years later in 1982, Mr Mark became the Project Engineer for the National Water Supply & Sanitation Board in Port Moresby. He held this post until 1984 when left for a year to London under a on –the –job British Council Scholarship with Binnie and Partners and undertook part time studies at the both the West Minister College and Imperial College.

In 1985, he returned to be Senior Engineer for Water Board. Eventually he became District Manager for Lae in 1982, holding the position for almost seven years.

In 1989 he left Water Board to become Senior Engineer for Scott & Furphy Aust Consultants in Port Moresby. He was appointed the firm’s Resident Manager soon after until 1992.

Amo an International Conference

In 1992, Mr Mark returned to PNG Water Board taking up the position of Engineering Manager localising the position held by a non-citizen engineer and heading a professional team of mostly expatriate engineers. Following the restructure, he was appointed Executive Manger Technical Services, the position he occupied for eight years. In 1998, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director and Executive Manager Tech Services for the Water Board.

&Executive Manger Technical Services. He occupied this position for eight years. In 1998, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director and Executive Manager Tech Services for the PNG Water Board.

In 2006, Mr Mark was appointed Deputy Managing Director and Executive Manager Business Support.

He was in this position for four years until his appointment as interim COO of Water PNG in 2010, under the new corporate structure.

Amo Mark, SRC President, Addressing the Deans when he graduated from Unitech.. Seated also is the first Prime Minister of PNG, Grand Cheif Sir Michael Somare

Mr Mark has always been leader. He was Student Representative Council (SRC) President at Unitech in 1973.

Since leaving university those glorious days past, he has kept the passion for leadership alive by becoming an active member of the Institute of Engineers, PNG in 1982 and remains so until the present.

He has been a member of the IEPNG Council for a number of years, becoming  Vice President IEPNG 1994 and President in 1995.

He has been a guiding light in the Institutes development programs for young graduates as well as the institutions’ development of a code of ethics and contributed actively to many constitutional reviews.

In 2011 he was recognised by Institute of Engineers and his peers for his contribution to the industry and Institute during his career.

However the production of oil and gas will change, becoming more [...]]]>

SPE President Alain Labastie with Wapu Sonk (right) Chairperson of the PNG Section of SPE

The visiting President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Alain Labastie provided much insight into the state of Oil and Gas supplies in the world, stating emphatically that hydrocarbons will continue to be a major source of energy well into the next century.

However the production of oil and gas will change, becoming more technology, capital and staff intensive as existing ‘easy’ oil resources are depleted and ‘hard’ oil resources (shale, sand oil etc) are converted into oil reserves.Speaking to members of the PNG Chapter of the Society and members of the oil and gas industry in Papua New Guinea, Mr Labastie said global energy demands continues to grow 1.6 percent per year.  By 2030, fossil fuels will account for 80 percent of the energy mix.

With substitutes for hydrocarbons a long way off, oil and gas will continue to power the global industry.

Statistics and Predictions

To date, around 1.07 tbbls  (trillion billion barrels) of oil has been produced globally with conventional estimates of 1.1tbbls of oil reserves left. This puts production of oil another 40 years.

An estimated 1,3 tbbls of oil reserves are yet to be found, which means another possible 40 years of production.

The improvement of technology used in the recovery of oil will also increase production from old, new and all future wells – improving recovery rates up to 45 per cent, yielding another 1.0 tbbls of oil recovered.

Mr Labastie said though hydrocarbon reserves are abundant, the challenge is to convert oil resources into reserves.

He said much of the ‘easy’ oil – the light and sweet oil reserves – are gone, so the future of extracting oil from ‘hard’ oil resources such as shale, sand etc, will require more efforts and investment in technology, man-hours and capital. It would be staff intensive.

At the same time, the capacity to recover oils in production is important as producing oil, as current oil fields around the world are in a state of decline by 5 to 6 percent per year. Yet demand continues to increase.

The 2010 production capacity is 85 mbbl per day.  In 2020, oil production will be required at 95mbbl per day. The requirement for production will be an increase of 45 mbbl per day and not 10 mbbl per day. This is because many of the current fields in operation will be depleted by then.

He said predictions are there that oil production is likely to reach a plateau of 100 mbbl per day in 2020.

Influence of Hydrocarbon Substitutes on Oil & Gas Markets

Mr Labastie stated that in the future the current economics of oil and gas markets will also change.

He pointed out that currently the oil market is not a traditional demand and supply market (i.e. prices reflect demand), instead it was influenced by many external factors and had limited flexibility and variation.

Illustrating this, he explained that the increase in oil prices in 2008 had no affect on demand and that in 2009 when oil prices did collapse, there was no corresponding increase in demand for oil.

The only time when demand slowed was at the end of 2000, due to the global financial crisis that pushed many economies into recession.

However in the future the logic of supply and demand will change, it will be related to price and supply of hydrocarbon substitutes.

Though substitutes for hydrocarbons maybe a long way off, there will come a time when these will provide a real viable energy alternative.

Climate Security

Mr Labastie said energy conservation and climate security will impact on the future production of oil and gas reserves.

The production and use of hydrocarbons contributes 33.5 % of total green house gases in the atmosphere ever year.

Climate security will continue to play an important factor in the production of oil and gas. The industry recognises the important of climate security and is developing technology for CO2 capture and geological storage in the production of oil and gases.

He explained that currently there was an integrated CCS project is being implemented in France. They are considering various types of C02 geological storage types.

These include storage of C02 in un-mineable coal seams (3000 billion tonnes of CO2), CO2 storage in depleted oil and gas reserves (600 – 1200 of CO2) and CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers (1000 – 10,000 billion tonnes of CO2).

The idea is to stop the CO2 released into the atmosphere during production. What is learnt from here and other oil and gas fields would add to the body of knowledge on reducing C02 emmissions during production.

The PNG Chapter of the Society and members of the oil and gas industry in Papua New Guinea were very appreciative of MrLabastie visit to Papua New Guinea.

SPE has over 99,000 members in 119 countries and 26,000 student members in 52 countries.