Nuau keen to fix landowner issues

By CLARISSA MOI
Department of Petroleum acting secretary Lohial Nuau, pictured, says one of his key performance indicators (KPI) for this year is settling landowner issues at project sites.
He told management and staff of the department yesterday that one of the important component tasks was that of the landowners, who were key stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
The Petroleum office has been criticised in the past by PNG LNG project landowners.
“In my term as the acting secretary, under my KPI, this will be a thing of the past,” Nuau said.
“No more will landowners be coming to our office.
“Most of our affiliation officers from coordination branch will be sent up and based at all the project sites. They will deal with the landowners upfront.
“We have a lot of outstanding landowner issues that have
not been dealt with by the department and the Government of the day.
“I want to make it clear to landowners that my management, in consultation with other sister government agencies and industry, will do our best to address the many outstanding issues by mapping or stock-taking.”
Nuau said he had new acting assistant-director policy David Manau to revisit and complete the draft policy manuals.
“These manuals and regulations will greatly help the department’s coordination of dealing with landowner issues and concerns,” he said. “The department’s presence is a key factor in handling landowner issues at the project sites.”
Nuau told his management team and staff not to entertain any landowner issues in Port Moresby but advise them to go back to Hides, Gobe, Kutubu and other project sites.