Account opening stopped

A BLANKET court order has stopped the clan bank account opening exercise for the PNG LNG projects petroleum development license No. 7 (PDL 7) landowners in Hela.
According to a statement from Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC), the Umbrella Hides PDL 7 Association had taken out an urgent blanket restraining order on MRDC and Department of Petroleum and Energy (DPE) from carrying out further activities in PDL 7 area, which was granted by the courts on Thursday. This was after MRDC was in Hela last week carrying out awareness activities in four regions in the PDL 7 area in the lead up to the account opening process which was to begin this week. MRDC had left out the entire Tuguba block clans from the exercise due to an existing court proceeding (OS (JR) No. 225 of 2019) in which the Tuguba clans were seeking a judicial review of the ministerial determination and also a review on their respective project agreement grants.
The solicitor-general and MRDC lawyers made submissions against the application on grounds of competency and substance, including the fact that the programme did not include disputing clans. Despite the grounds raised, the court granted the application and ordered MRDC and the defendants to stop the programme.
MRDC managing director Augustine Mano expressed disappointment about the court order.