Airlines grounded across Papua New Guinea due to fuel shortage

Thousands of airline passengers were stranded across Papua New Guinea as commercial airlines grounded planes after the country’s sole supplier of finished petroleum products stopped providing jet fuel. Puma Energy, the country’s only fuel supplier, said the shortage in supply was due to a lack of foreign currency from the Central Bank of Papua New Guinea, used to buy fuel on the international markets. There was chaos at the country’s main domestic airport in Port Moresby, after all major airlines cancelled their scheduled domestic flights earlier on Thursday. “Our livelihood is being affected, just after new year,” said Simdei Kamgu, who was supposed to be travelling to Kiunga, Western Province. The prime minister, James Marape, said the situation had become a national security issue and asked the Bank of PNG and Puma Energy to solve the problem, saying the country was being held to ransom.<br/>