Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, speaks with Papua New Guinea Defense Minister Billy Joseph at the National Disaster Center in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, July 15, 2024. (Shannon M. Smith/U.S. Navy)
The U.S. Defense Department is funding a $400 million fuel storage facility in Papua New Guinea as part of the growing military ties under a 2023 defense agreement between the two countries.
The facility will have the capacity to store almost 70 million gallons of fuel, the U.S. Embassy to Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu said in a news release Monday.
Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, on Friday personally informed Papua New Guinea’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the funding, according to the release.
U.S. armed forces will have access to the facility and the fuel as part of the 2023 agreement.
The complex will be built by DGCI Corp., an aerospace and defense company based in McLean, Va. Construction is projected to be completed in 2030.
DGCI “has a successful history of constructing and operating large scale fuel facilities in Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Central Asia,” the release said.
The announcement follows a U.S. Navy search for alternative fuel storage facilities with the closure of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii.
A massive fuel spill at Red Hill in late 2021 contaminated the aquifer near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Red Hill had a capacity for 250 million gallons of fuel.
In his March 2022 order to permanently close the World War II-era underground storage facility, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said a centralized fuel hub makes less sense now than it did in the 1940s.
“The distributed and dynamic nature of our force posture in the Indo-Pacific, the sophisticated threats we face, and the technology available to us demand an equally advanced and resilient fueling capability,” Austin said in the announcement. “To a large degree, we already avail ourselves of dispersed fueling at sea and ashore, permanent and rotational. We will now expand and accelerate that strategic distribution.”
Papua New Guinea, lying just northeast of Australia, is significantly closer than Hawaii to the South China Sea and Taiwan, which are major hotspots in the relationship between the U.S. and China. The island nation would likely be central in the event of military conflict with China.
The 2023 defense agreement is spurring other U.S. military investments in the country.
On Tuesday, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command broke ground for two key facilities at Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island, north of the nation’s main island, the embassy said in a Wednesday news release.
The Regional Maritime Training Center and the Small Boat Team and Bosun Facility are intended to “support maritime readiness, enhance the capabilities of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force, and support long-term regional security in the Indo-Pacific,” according to the release.
The $16 million projects are expected to be completed by next spring.
The bosun facility will provide maintenance and operational space for three Papua New Guinea military small boat teams, which conduct coastal operations and “respond to maritime threats,” the release said.
On Friday, the U.S. Army wrapped up the two-week Tamiok Strike exercise in the capital city of Port Moresby and several other locations.
Among the training events were staff planning exercises, medical training, infantry tactics drills and a construction project.
“The relationship that we have with the U.S. military and [Papua New Guinea’s defense force] is built on our shared history and values,” Brig. Gen. Larry Opa, the defense force deputy commander, said during the closing ceremony, according to a Tuesday news release. “Tamiok Strike is a demonstration of the progression of this relationship.”
