Recently-appointed Public Enterprises Minister Sir Mekere Morauta announced Blake's resignation just less than two weeks ago, but former public enterprises minister Arthur Somare has since stated Blake did not resign but was sacked.
In any event, Blake recently left to have a hernia operation, and job applications for his position closed on Friday.
As is also evident when government positions are advertised in Australia, there is a possibility a favoured candidate is already in mind for the job.
The IPBC has made significant achievements under Blake's leadership over the past few years.
In 2008 it won a lengthy battle against rival state-owned enterprise Petromin to manage the bulk of the government's stake (16.6%) of the PNG LNG project.
Blake also led the IPBC when it secured about $A1.68 billion of funding from Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Corporation in 2009 to help fund the PNG government's share of PNG LNG project development expenses.
Other partners in PNG LNG include ExxonMobil (33.2%), Oil Search (29%), Santos (13.5%), Merlin Petroleum (4.7%), the state-owned Minerals Resource Development Company (2.8%) and Petromin (0.2%).
