LNG works winding down

 The PNG LNG project has employed up to 21,000 people, including 9,000 Papua New Guineans, who will start being laid off towards the end of this year as construction work slows down, says Esso Highlands managing director Peter Graham.

He said he was immensely proud of the contribution the company had made towards human resource development of PNG.

“The workforce has slowly been decreasing, but it will stay pretty much the same size at the plant site to year end this year,” Graham said.

“And then we start to contract.

“The biggest number of people is involved in the early stages, because there’s a lot of earth work.”

Esso Highlands is actively involved with helping nationals look for other opportunities as LNG construction work winds down.

“We’ve been doing some creative work with our Papua New Guinean workforce to help them through the transition,” Graham said.

“It’s helping people understand the assets they have, how they can better manage their lives, to value the assets that they’ve got.

“We’ve also talked with local employers in town about job opportunities.”

He said when the project started, it was expected that only 3,500 nationals would be employed, but this had gone beyond all expectations.