People line up at Puma energy service stations to get fuel. February 2023. Photo: Facebook / Marape - Rosso Government 2022-2027
The Papua New Guinea government last week finally instituted measures to try and solve an ongoing crisis over the availability of fuel.
Puma Energy which has an almost monopoly control of the market has been forced a number of times over the past year to announce that they are limiting supplies because they lacked the foreign exchange to bring the fuel into the country.
Meanwhile it has now been publicly revealed that the central bank of PNG, BPNG, had last year asked police to investigate Puma for possible money laundering.
RNZ Pacific's Don Wiseman spoke to the executive director of the PNG Institute of National Affairs, Paul Barker, who says the primary cause of the issue is the lack of foreign exchange.
