Disregard media propaganda, Exxon

This is for the employees of ExxonMobil, its subsidiary JV partners and all other stakeholders of the PNG LNG project. 
This is the commonly held view of the silent majority of our village-based landowners.
Firstly, reports we read in our newspapers are provided by people who have no connection and influence on the ground.
As such, our visitors and developers should not be bothered by the media propaganda.
Secondly, there have been pockets of stop-works at different locations. The reasons are varied from each location but mainly relate to employment and business participation issues.
These are common problems and are expected to happen. Exxon has an established procedure of dealing with such issues and grievances, and we are satisfied this process is working thus far.
Reports that the government is to be blamed for not releasing seed capital is incorrect and misleading.
This is cooked up by people with vested interests. There is no real urgency for the state to release funds at this juncture as the genuine landowners have yet to be nailed down and mobilised.
Thirdly, there is no denying that the government has an obligation to listen to the landowners on the issue of business development participation.
The landowners have a genuine case and the government cannot walk away from this responsibility as promised at the Kokopo BSA and LBBSA meetings.
Equally, there is no denying that many self-proclaimed landowners have hijacked the process and benefited greatly from the project activities.
Many of these are the so-called paper landowners. As such, the state is asked to work through the process to mobilise and establish genuine landowner umbrella companies because many of the grievances relate to the business structure of these entities.
Therefore, we urge the government not to entertain these “paper landowners” in Port Moresby.
Fourth, who are the genuine landowners?
They are the ones who are sitting on the land affected by the project activities and have been relocated.
Likewise, genuine landowners are the ones who are currently benefiting from the Oil Search annual rental payments and MRDC’s equity and royalty benefits.
Of course, there are other project impacted landowners but the obvious landowners are those falling into these category.
A genuine and broad-based lanco can be carved out through this network as the stepping stone to establish a true landowner company that is transparent and homegrown.

We the people
Hela