Speakers

Hon. Sam Basil MP

Deputy Prime Minister

Papua New Guinea

Hon.Sam Basil was re-elected to the 10th National Parliament as the member for Bulolo Open Electorate seat as a Member of the Pangu Party during the 2017 General Elections. He is the current Treasurer and former Minister for Communications, Information Technology & Energy. Hon. Basil was first Elected to the 8th National Parliament for the Bulolo Open Electorate in the 2007 General Elections as a People's Progress Party candidate. He has held various positions within government including being appointed member of Parliamentary Referral Committee on Lands and Environment and the Special Committee on Gas and Energy as Deputy Chairman.

Hon. Kerenga Kua

Minister of Petroleum and Energy

Papua New Guinea

Hon. Charles Abel

Former Deputy Prime Minister

Papua New Guinea

Hon. Charles Abel is a Member of Parliament for Alotau electorate and formally the Minister for Planning. First Elected to the 8th National Parliament for the Alotau Open Electorate in the 2007 General Elections as an Independent candidate, he then joined the National Alliance Party. Appointment as Minister for Culture and Tourism in the Somare-Temu cabinet on the 29/8/2007 till resignation from government in July 2010 to join the Morauta led opposition. Appointed Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry on 5/8/2011 in the O'Neill-Namah cabinet.Re-elected to the 9th National Parliament for the Alotau Open Electorate in the 2012 General Elections as an People`s National Congress Party candidate. Appointed Minister for National Planning in the O'Neill-Dion cabinet.

Hon. Joe Oliver

Former Minister of Natural Resources & Former Minister of Finance

Canada

Joe Oliver is the former Minister of Finance and Minister of Natural Resources. Mr. Oliver represented Canada at G7, G20, IMF and World Bank meetings of Finance Ministers.

Joe Oliver served as President and CEO of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada. He also served as Executive Director of the Ontario Securities Commission and managed the investment banking operations of several Canadian investment dealers.

Mr. Oliver is the Chairman of Echelon Wealth Partners, Director of Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation and High Arctic Energy Services and a Director of the Manning Centre.

Dairi Vele

Secretary - Treasury Department

Papua New Guinea

Mr Dairi Vele is the Secretary for the Papua New Guinea Department of Treasury, a position he has held since August 2013. Interestingly, Dairi is the first Secretary for Treasury in PNG to have occupied the position his father the late Morea Vele held twice before. Dairi studied Economics at the Australian National University where he attained his Bachelors Degree in Economics in the year 2000. Prior to joining Treasury, Mr Vele was twice the Director of the Gas Projects Coordination Office from 2007 to 2010 and 2012 to 2013 where he was heavily involved in the successful negotiation of the PNG LNG project on behalf of the State. He was also the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Company of PNG (NPCP) from 2010 to 2011.

Peter Koim

Director

Gas Project Coordinating Office 

Mr Peter Koim is a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Papua New Guinea, graduating in 1987. He has worked in the oil and gas sector in PNG for 22 years, 6 of which were focused in the downstream and 16 upstream. Peter has held senior positions at both ExxonMobil and Chevron and is now the Director, Gas Projects Coordination Office for the Government of Papua New Guinea.

David Manau

Secretary

Department for Petroleum & Energy

Wapu Sonk

Managing Director

Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd

Mr Sonk is the Managing Director of Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (Kumul Petroleum), formerly National Petroleum Company PNG Holdings Limited.
Since his appointment as the Managing Director of NPCP in January 2013 and transitioning through to Kumul Petroleum, Mr Sonk has been the driving force behind building the Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd (formerly NPCP), where the highlight has been the successful legislative reforms that has lead to the birth of Kumul Petroleum as Papua New Guinea’s National Oil and Gas Corporation. The legislation now gives the NOC a strong foundation to grow and move forward.
Mr Sonk has over two decades of experience as a Papua New Guinean leader in the oil & gas industry. His career matured with the industry itself maturing from being an oil exporting country to now LNG exporter.
He has occupied numerous leadership roles in the Petroleum Industry of PNG since beginning his career with Chevron Nuigini Pty Ltd in 1997. These roles include Director – PNG LNG Project at IPBC, Chairperson of Society of Petroleum Engineers (PNG Section) (2011), Technical Manager at NPCP (Kroton), Drilling & Completions Engineer at Oil Search Head Office, Sydney, Drilling Rig Operations Supervisor, Field Coordinator - PNG to QLD Gas Pipeline Project FEED Team (2005) and Petroleum Engineer for Chevron.
Mr Sonk continues to be a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (Worldwide), and Institute of Engineers PNG.
Mr Sonk holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree (Mining Engineering) from the University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea; a Diploma of Business (Business Management) from the Melbourne Business School, Mt Eliza Centre for Executive Education, Australia.

Carolyn Blacklock

Former Managing Director

PNG Power Ltd

Carolyn has 25 years’ experience in private sector finance, development and infrastructure with the last 15 years in the Pacific. Following a successful corporate banking career working with Australian top tier banks, in 2009, Carolyn moved permanently to Papua New Guinea to establish the International Finance Corporation (the private sector arm of the World Bank) where she led the office for the next four years. Following a stint overseeing key projects for Hawkins Infrastructure, New Zealand, Carolyn had been engaged by the Government of PNG in Treasury as their specialist adviser with a specific mandate to accelerate infrastructure development and create a pipeline of bankable projects to attract high quality developers and investors to PNG. More recently Carolyn has taken over a new role as Acting Manging Director at PNG Power. She is known for her strong track record of taking large, complex projects through to successful delivery. She lives and works in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Augustine Mano

Managing Director

Mineral Resource Development Company (MRDC)

Mr Augustine Sanga Mano was appointed the Managing Director & CEO of Mineral Resources Development Company in March 2008. MRDC is a state owned entity that manages all Royalties and Equities for Landowners and Provincial Governments in Mining and Petroleum Projects in PNG. Mr Mano has been involved in both mining and petroleum industries for the last ten years. He has been actively involved in various capacity in construction, transport, finance, insurance, aviation and the hospitality industry. He is the Chairman of The Star Mountains Plaza, The Pearl Resort in Fiji, Taumeasina Hotels in Samoa and Inspac. He currently serves on the Boards of all MRDC Group of Companies namely, Mineral Resource Star Mountains, Mineral Resources Ok Tedi No.2, Petroleum Resources Kutubu, Petroleum Resources Moran and Petroleum Resources Gobe and many other subsidiaries of MRDC. He is also on the boards of Hevilift, PNG Air and Bank South Pacific (BSP).  

Paulus Ain

Commissioner & CEO

Independent Consumer & Competition Commission (ICCC)

Mr. Paulus Ain has sixteen (16) years of experience working within the ICCC as a senior staff member of the economic and competition regulator, since its creation in 2002. Of the 16 years with the ICCC, he has had 10 years of senior management experience and exposure.

Mr. Ain is an experienced and seasoned regulator and has played an important role in the evolution of effective competition and economic regulation in PNG since the introduction of competition frame work and economic regulation in PNG. He has been at the cutting edge of the development of the reformed competition frame work and has been intimately involved in some of the strategic developments in opening up other key sectors to competitive pressures resulting in the largest improvement in economic efficiency for the PNG economy as a whole.

He has been appointed to be the Commissioner of the ICCC in 2015 and has been in this role for 4 years.

Brett Woods

Executive Vice President Developments

Santos

Brett joined Santos in February 2013 and is accountable for Development across Santos’ onshore and offshore assets, including major capital projects, drilling & completions, and reservoir development, as well as Energy Solutions and Technology and overseeing Santos’ Joint Venture in PNG LNG.

At Santos, Brett has previously held the roles of Executive Vice President Onshore Upstream, and Vice President, Eastern Australia. Brett has held other roles within Santos including responsibilities for exploration in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, leading the Western Australian offshore operations including development of Fletcher Finucane, Darwin LNG and the domestic gas business.

Brett has over 24 years of oil and gas industry experience including senior management, technical and business development roles at Woodside Energy and as CEO and Managing Director of Rialto Energy. He has a track record of delivering projects and efficient E&P operations and has both domestic and international experience. Brett is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program, an APPEA Board Director and Chairman of the APPEA Exploration Committee.

Jean Marc Noiray

Managing Director

TotalEnergies PNG Ltd

60 years old, Jean-Marc Noiray graduated from Polytechnique, and école nationale supérieure des pétroles. He joined Total Exploration &Production in 1983 as reservoir engineer, assigned in France, Vénézuela, Indonesia. He then moved to positions in pre-project, field operations, project management, general management in several E&P subsidiaries: Argentina Scotland, Cameroon, Indonesia, and also in Refining and Chemicals. Before joining PNG, he was in charge of the development and support to operation of all theTotal Exploration & Production onshore assets.

Andrew Barry

VP Global LNG Marketing

ExxonMobil Ltd

Mr Andrew Barry is the Managing Director of ExxonMobil PNG Limited, the operator for the PNG LNG Project Joint Venture. He is also Lead Country Manager for ExxonMobil in Papua New Guinea.  He has more than 20 years’ international experience in the oil and gas industry working with ExxonMobil. Before he came to PNG, he was President of ExxonMobil Canada where he was responsible for ExxonMobil’s production, development and exploration activities across Canada. He started his career in Australia and has also worked in Qatar.  His experience covers a wide range of roles including engineering, operations, strategic planning and LNG marketing. Mr Barry has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree, with First Class Honors from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Melbourne. Mr Barry is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and is a Council member for the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council and the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum. Mr Barry is married and has three children.

Peter Botten

Former Managing Director

Oil Search

Mr Botten was appointed Managing Director on 28 October 1994, having previously filled both exploration and general manager roles in the company since joining in 1992. He has extensive worldwide experience in the oil and gas business, previously holding various senior technical and managerial positions in a number of listed and government owned organisations. Mr Botten is a Director of AGL Energy and is on the Executive Committee of the Australia PNG Business Council. He is Chairman of the Hela Provincial Health Authority and the National Football Stadium Trust in Port Moresby. Mr Botten is a former President of the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Mines and Petroleum. Mr Botten was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2019 honours list for eminent service to Australia-Papua New Guinea relations, particularly in the oil and gas industry, and to social and economic initiatives.

Bacho Pilong

Vice President - International Assets

PETRONAS

Bacho hails from Tawau, Malaysia and earned his degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas in Austin,USA. He then furthered his learning through the Advanced Management Program of INSEAD inSingapore and Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Bacho, who is currently the Vice President of International Assets, under the Development & Production division, joined PETRONAS in 1992 as a process engineer and has since served the Company in various technical and leadership positions including overseas postings in Vietnam, Sudan and South Sudan. His current portfolio consists of 14 countries throughout various regions.

Previously, from April 2013 to December 2016, he headed the Production & Operations Management department, under Malaysia Petroleum Management(MPM)–the E&P regulatory arm of Malaysia, under the PETRONAS Group.

One of Bacho's significant achievements includes delivering USD 1.16 Billion (MYR5Billion) worth of cost savings to the Company in 2015. This was through the establishment and his Chairmanship of the Cost Reduction Alliance (CORAL) 2.0 Steering Committee, which focused on cost optimization throughout the Upstream Business in Malaysia.

Alan Heng

Head of Division, Energy Sales & Market Development

Pavilion Energy Pte Ltd

Mr Alan Heng is the Head of the Energy Sales and Market Development Division at Pavilion Energy, responsible for the organisation’s regional business activities, marine fuel business as well as downstream gas business operations in Singapore. He is part of the Senior Leadership Team at Pavilion Energy.
Mr Heng is also concurrently the Chief Executive Officer of Gas Supply Pte Ltd (GSPL), a position he has held since April 2011. As CEO of GSPL, he steered the organisation to include LNG in its portfolio of supply to its customers.
Before joining GSPL in 2011, Mr Heng was with ExxonMobil Corporation for 23 years. Throughout his career in ExxonMobil, he held a variety of leadership positions in supply, planning, chemicals, operations and marketing with increasing geographic responsibilities. He was previously ExxonMobil’s Country Manager in Taiwan and New Zealand, and the Regional Executive – Pacific Islands/Oceania.
A Singaporean, Mr Heng holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Hons) and a Master of Business Administration from the National University of Singapore.

Dr Fereidun Fesharaki

Chairman

FGE

Dr Fereidun Fesharaki is the Founder and Chairman of FGE. His work is well-recognized worldwide for pioneering oil and gas market analysis and studies of the Asia Pacific/Middle East energy markets since the early 1980s. Dr Fesharaki received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Surrey in England and then completed a Visiting Fellowship at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Joined the East-West Center in 1979 and was a Senior Fellow leading energy-related research till end 2013. In 1989, Dr Fesharaki was elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Since 1991, a member of the International Advisory Board of JX Holdings (and its predecessor companies)—Japan’s largest oil company. Dr. Fesharaki was the 1993 President of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). In 1995, elected a Senior Fellow of the US Association for Energy Economics for distinguished services in the field of energy economics. In 2002, appointed a Senior Associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. In 2008, Dr Fesharaki was appointed to the National Petroleum Council by then US Secretary of Energy and re-appointed by Secretary Moniz in April 2016. Received the Outstanding Contributions to the IAEE Award in 2012. He was a member of the Advisory Board of VOPAK LNG from 2013 to 2015. In 2014, appointed as Honorary Advisor by CNPC Research Institute of Economics and Technologies in Beijing. Dr Fesharaki is the recipient of the 2016 Adelman-Frankel Award from the US Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) for his unique and innovative contribution to the field of energy economics. In March 2017, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) appointed him as a Director of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME). Since 2009, he has been a member of the DME Board of Directors.

Patrick Cocquerel

Global Head of Natural Resources

Westpac

Patrick joined Westpac Institutional Bank in 2003 to develop the bank’s presence in the Oil & Gas sector. He is now Head of Westpac Natural Resources in charge of the bank’s worldwide relationships with companies involved in the Oil & Gas, Metals, Mining, Commodity Trading and Engineering sectors. Before joining Westpac, Patrick spent seventeen years working with a European Banking group in Paris, Sydney, Madrid, Los Angeles and Houston.

Michael Binnion

Chairman of the Board

High Arctic

Michael Binnion is the President and CEO and founding shareholder of Questerre Energy, established in November 2000. Questerre is a public oil and gas production company with operations in Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Jordan. He has been a leader in the campaign for hydrocarbons in Quebec as Chairman of the Quebec Oil & Gas Association.

Mr. Binnion is a seasoned entrepreneur with a history of starting, financing and managing companies and not-for- profits. He has extensive experience as a board member for several high-tech companies in Canada. Additionally, he is the Executive Director of Rupert’s Crossing Ltd., a private merchant banking firm.

He is also Chairman of both High Arctic Energy Services and the Manning Foundation. Most recently he founded the Modern Miracle Network, an organization of Canadians wanting adult conversations including the benefits and not just the impacts of energy use.

A fifth-generation Albertan born in Calgary, Mr. Binnion is not only passionate about entrepreneurship but also a community-minded individual concerned with the prospects for future generations of Canadians. He is the founder and chairman of the Lesley Binnion Foundation for Disabled Sports, helping hundreds of kids and families make the extraordinary achievement of learning to ski a reality.

Mr. Binnion has published a peer reviewed geological paper in Marine and Petroleum Geology as well as two climate policy papers in Policy Options.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Finance from the University of Alberta and is a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants of Alberta.

Jim Collings

Country Manager

Puma Energy

Mr Jim Collings is the Country Manager and Director of Puma Energy’s businesses in Papua New Guinea. His senior management and board career experience spans multiple geographies across a range of industries including FMCG, Telecommunications, Strategic consultancy and the Oil industry.

Jim joined Puma Energy in PNG in 2015 following 10 years running Shell businesses, at senior management and board level in New Zealand and Australia. His oil industry experience cuts across upstream, refining and downstream marketing.

Combined with Jim’s active business leadership roles, he has a number of years providing strategic consultancy across a broad industry portfolio from start-up organisations through to multi-national companies. In Jim’s various roles he has actively driven the both industrial and community driven infrastructure projects to deliver positive outcomes for all stakeholders.

Andrew Tan

President & CEO Oceania

Chiyoda

Andrew  is  an  established  senior  executive  with  more  than  twenty  years  of  experience  ranging  from  various  leadership  capacities  spanning  project  engineering,  operations  and  business  development  across  Oil  &  Gas,  Mining,  Pharmaceutical  and  Semiconductor  industries. 

Andrew’s  exposure  to  international  markets  in  Australia,  Thailand,  Malaysia,  Vietnam,  Brunei,  Singapore,  Middle  East,  Papua  New  Guinea and  Diego  Garcia  enables  him  to  appreciate  and  manage  across  diverse  cultures.    Andrew’s  current  role  at  Chiyoda  involves  managing  the  operations  in  the  Oceania  Region which  currently  comprises  of  Papua  New  Guinea,  Australia,  East  Timor  and  New  Zealand.

Jonathan Bloch

Executive Director - Head of Strategic Banking

ANZ

Mr Jonathan Bloch has over 30 years’ experience in the exploration, mining and resource banking sectors. Since late 2002, Jonathan has been responsible for heading the strategic banking business across ANZ’s Resources, Energy and Infrastructure (REI) global client base. His mandate is to engage with clients across the bank’s global business portfolio, working closely with a wide cross section of ANZ’s Australian and offshore bankers. This involves originating and managing complex Australian and cross border relationships, structured capital solutions and advisory opportunities. In PNG, he has worked on evaluation and finance solutions for projects including Lihir, Tolokuma, Hidden Valley, Elk-Antelope/Papua LNG, PNG LNG expansion and Frieda River. He has led numerous award winning structured transactions across the LNG, Petrochemicals, Gas and Base Metals industries. Jonathan has a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Degree in Geology from the West Australian School of Mines. In addition to his minerals based qualification and experience, he has also undertaken intensive industry based training in petroleum reservoir engineering, LNG and petrochemical project fundamentals.

Jessie Mitir

Stakeholder Engagement Manager

PNG Biomass

Jessie has over 19 years’ experience working in forestry and agricultural research specialising in the area of technical and non-technical writing, editing and publishing, farmer learning, managing and delivering donor funded community development projects.

She is a trained mentor and volunteer from the University of Melbourne and has helped coordinate fundraisers. Jessie is experienced in translating scientific knowledge to community-based knowledge; developing small businesses for men, women and youths in villages and peri-urban areas; and dealing with socio-cultural and environmental issues in a sustainable manner.

Jessie joined PNG Biomass in October 2016 and leads the stakeholder engagement team that focuses on social impact and performance, land access, government affairs, business development, community relationships, and environment and safety.

David Low

Upstream Lead- Australasia Research

Wood Mackenzie

David joined Wood Mackenzie in February 2018 as an analyst for the Australasian Upstream Research team.

Prior to Wood Mackenzie, David held an Analyst position at Willis Towers Watson in the asset consulting division. He was responsible for fund manager research and providing portfolio construction advice to institutional clients.

David also worked at Chevron Australia for circa 4 years in reservoir and drilling engineering.

David attained a double Bachelor Degree in Petroleum Engineering (Hon) and Commerce from the University of Western Australia. He has also completed CFA Level 1.