12 Aug 2016

Major PNG resource project at threat of landowner shutdown

From , 5:05 am on 12 August 2016

Landowners in Papua New Guinea's Hela province have threatened to shut down the country's major Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project today if the government doesn't pay them outstanding benefits.

The project's Hides gas conditioning plant in Hela remains locked by landowners protesting that the government owes them five years worth of project commitments worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Stanley Mamu from LNG Watch said a government delegation made a brief trip to Hela yesterday to talk with the landowners and are expected back in Hela on Friday with an ultimate response to their grievances.

He spoke to Johnny Blades who asked him about the landowners' response to government statements that delays in payments to the landowners were due to complications over identifying genuine landowners.