29 Oct 2010

More PNG police deployed to secure LNG project

2:35 pm on 29 October 2010

A 30-strong Papua New Guinea police squad is being redeployed at three LNG project construction sites to ensure work continues on schedule.

The newspaper, The National, says this follows an emergency session of the national executive council at which nearly four million US dollars was approved for the operation.

The police commissioner, Gari Baki, says police from Port Moresby are being sent to Gobe in the Southern Highlands and Kikori and Kopi in Gulf Province.

The paper says the redeployment is to quash fears among investors of growing landowner opposition over employment opportunities, working conditions and outstanding land pay issues.

The meeting was called amid growing concerns that investors were seriously considering their options in the project.

The early developments have been marked by disruptions, most recently the burning of equipment at Kopi, a strike at the Komo airfield construction site and last Friday a stop-work at two pipeline sites.