Papua New Guinea will have a dedicated onshore oil, gas and geothermal drilling contractor if the shareholders of Canadian company High Arctic Energy Services approve the spin-off of its PNG division.

High Arctic is the dominant provider of drilling services in PNG and has been present in country for 16 years. Its board has decided that, as part of a corporate reorganisation, the PNG business will be sold to shareholders as an unlisted private company.

High Arctic’s Canadian publicly-listed company will remain, and will focus on growing the Canadian business.