Landowners’ initiative needed to win LNG contracts

RESOURCE landowners must take the initiative instead of waiting for government to help them participate in the country’s resource development projects.
Chhairman of the Hides Gas Resources Ltd (HGRL), the licenced-based landowner company in petroleum development licence 1 (PDL1) area of Hides in Southern Highlands province, Willy Wandiya said this to landowners.
Citing their  struggles to get a contract in the K40 billion LNG project, he said it was time landowners looked beyond PNG government.
Recently, HGRL signed a deal with an international human resource company Brunel International to supply LNG project with its labour and human resource needs.
“The more we rely on the government, the more our chances are of missing out on lucrative business opportunities,” Wandiya said.
“The government does not have the money … it is incapacitated,” he said.
Wandiya said  the government did  not have the capacity and the technical know-how for such project like the PNG LNG.
“The government is only there to facilitate,” he said, adding that the   government   is financially inadequate to finance its own equity share in the gas project.
“The government will also have to borrow to finance its equity share in the project.”
Because of this, Wandiya has urged landowners to have foresight.
“We must look beyond the early works, beyond the first LNG shipment, the first royalties, the first spin-off benefits to see ourselves after the project and what our children and grandchildren would say about how we handled their future,” he said.