Landowners plan to invest royalty payment into small business

By GYNNIE KERO
ONE of the 37 major clans that is a recipient of K9.2 million paid in Gulf last week says they plan to invest in small business activities.
Hapape clan chairman Paul Opei, from Kopi village, without going into the details of the sort of business activity they would engage in, stressed the need to do something productive for his Rumu tribe.
Last Monday, Mineral Resources Development Company led a delegation to Kikori where it was announced that the 37 clans in segment 7 (Kikori pipeline landowners) would get K20.1 million in royalties and equity.
Petroleum and Energy Minister Kerenga Kua had urged the landowners to use their share of benefits to better their families’ lives. “Put the money where it will matter,” Kua told the Kikori landowners.
The pipeline landowners live in remote villages in Hela, Southern Highlands, Western, Gulf and Central. The 679km pipeline transports gas from Hides in Hela to Caution Bay outside Port Moresby runing through their land, entitling them to royalty and equity benefits from the PNG LNG Project.
Since 2014, their royalty and equity benefits have been held in trust pending the completion of landowner identification, the opening of clan bank accounts and the election of directors to the board of their landowner company.
In the last three years, officials from the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC), the Department of Petroleum and Energy, Kumul Petroleum Ltd and Bank South Pacific travelled to the remote areas to complete the process, which is a requirement of the Oil and Gas Act.
The landowners are divided into eight segments, with segments one-six living in Western, Hela and Southern Highlands, segment seven in Kikori, and segment eight in Central.
The royalty payment for the pipeline landowners is for years 2014-2018 and totals K31.3 million, while equity payments total K23.16 million and is for 2014-2016.
Combined, it totals K54.26 million, of which 40 per cent will be distributed as cash benefits through bank accounts, 30 per cent on community infrastructure projects and the other 30 per cent retained in the Future Trust Fund for investment.
Managing director Augustine Mano said the payment at Kikori marked MRDC’s roll out of benefits for PNG LNG project pipeline landowners this year.