24 Dec 2004

Gas pipeline plan prompts improvement in PNG credit rating

10:25 am on 24 December 2004

The rating agency, Standard and Poors, says a new natural gas pipeline project is partly responsible for an upgraded credit rating for Papua New Guinea.

This follows recent progress on the much-delayed PNG Gas Project, a 3,200 kilometre pipeline that will carry natural gas to Queensland, Australia.

Credit analyst, Philippe Sachs, says the short-term foreign currency rating was raised to B from C, while the B short-term local currency rating on PNG was affirmed.

The completion of the proposed pipeline could boost PNG's real GDP growth rate and largely offset the production decline from other projects, however the pipeline's completion date, is unknown.