Protesters back off LNG blockade

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s LNG Project is set to resume normal operations after protesting landowners in Hela province reached agreement with the government.

For almost two weeks, landowners in the region where the gas fields are centred have blocked access to the US$19 billion project’s conditioning plant in Hides.

They have been demanding payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding project commitments from the government.

Following a series of negotiations, landowners from two Petroleum Development License areas in Hides have signed a memorandum of understanding with the government.

PNG’s Petroleum and Energy Minister Nixon Duban was party to the signing of the agreement and agreed to honour all the issues in the landowners’ petition, saying he would take it for approval to the National Executive Committee.

The government has said that the money owed to the landowners is saved in trust funds, but has indicated that delays in payments were due to an ongoing process of verifying legitimate landowners.

The government showed the landowner groups proofs of bank print-outs of royalty money parked in Bank South Pacific and Bank of PNG accounts for them.

The LNG project is the biggest single commercial development in the entire Pacific Islands region.

However, the end of the project’s construction phase meant that many locals in Hela lost employment or livelihood opportunities that the project created.

An observer in Papua New Guinea’s Hela Province says the agreement does not mean grievances have been resolved.

Isaac Pulupe said the agreement does not necessarily mean the landowners are happy, as the government has made “grand promises” before about development for the region from the project.

He said if the agreement is not met by the government, or further negotiations break down, landowners are likely to protest again.

- RNZI/PNC