A Papua New Guinea geologist expects to meet with the Prime Minister by the end of this week to discuss the risks involved in laying ExxonMobil's liquified natural gas pipeline on the sea bed.
Construction on the multi-billion dollar pipeline that'll carry LNG from Southern Highlands to a coastal site north of Port Moresby from 2014 has been marred by inter-village clashes over land as well as environmental and social concerns.
The managing director of Geosite Management Limited, which has issued a geological report on the project, says he's not against it but thinks it should be developed more responsibly.
Sigl Dorugl says the undersea route to the capital crosses an area of high tectonic activity, making the risk of a pipe rupture extremely high.
"Where the pipe comes out to the sea they should strip it there and we now have, PNG is an oil producing country, we have an exporting oil terminal and what I'm saying is the LNG, the gas can come out there, they process it and pipe to the same exporting terminal and we can export it."
Geosite Management Limited's Sigl Dorugl.
