“The force majeure situation at the Kumul terminal has unexpectedly interrupted the refinery crude supply as InterOil’s next crude cargo from Kumul was scheduled to be delivered during the last week of February,” said InterOil yesterday.

It said it had ensured the stoppage would not adversely affect domestic Papua New Guinea delivery obligations with an alternate crude cargo expected around March 10 from supplier BP.

“Elective maintenance and upgrading activities will be carried out during this period. These upgrades will result in the production of a larger volume of higher value product and the optimisation of our refinery into the 2nd quarter,” said InterOil.