Gulf wants LNG gains shared

The National Business

By CLARISSA MOI
THE Gulf provincial government wants equitable benefits for all parties in the Papua LNG project, says Governor Chris Haiveta.
He told the media yesterday in Port Moresby, witnessed by provincial leaders, that the project was progressing to deliver positive outcomes with all correct procedures being followed.
Haiveta said that would ensure past mistakes on other projects would not be repeated.
“We have learnt from the mistakes of past agreements in oil and gas, especially the PNG LNG project, so we will not repeat that,” he said.
“That means all the beneficiaries, including the provincial, local level governments and the landowners, have to be identified and gazetted through the ministerial determination before we move to the second stage.
“We will progress towards stage two, which is the development forum for the Papua LNG project.
“The forum discussions will be held in the project footprint areas and in the last quarter of 2019.
“The discussions are essential in how we move forward the project.
“The forum discussions set the platform with petroleum development license (PDL) landowners, local level governments, National Government and the provincial government.”
Haiveta said the gas agreement to be signed on April 5 would be between developer Total and its partners ExxonMobil PNG, Oil Search Ltd and the national Government.
“Towards the end of this year, we should finalise the arrangement for all of us: the State, provincial government, the local level government and the landowners to meet,” he said.
“We will not be rushed into developing this project. This is evident by the processes that the National Government has implemented to guarantee beneficial outcomes for all parties.
“We thank the National Government and the developer of the Papua LNG project for the manner in which they have conducted the process. It has been inclusive and productive with all parties, especially with the Gulf provincial government, at this stage.
“The processes must be followed and we have specific committees to evaluate these processes.
“The ministerial oversight committee and the ministerial gas committee are fundamental to evaluating any parts of the gas agreements reached between the State negotiating team and the developer’s negotiating team.”