PEOPLE

Exxon nominates Ulato for top award

PERCHED on a breezy hill, overlooking the small Motuan coastline village of Boera, Ulato Avei, sips a cup of tea and watches the mighty Spirit of Hela sail past as she goes in for a refill at the PNG LNG Project’s plant processing facility.
It has been a familiar sight for the last six years since shipment started for the project in 2014. The huge LNG tanker seems miniature from where she sits. Her village is one of four surrounding ExxonMobil’s US$19 billion PNG LNG Project’s processing plant.
Clans in the four villages had to consent for their land to be given away to the PNG LNG Project to build the huge processing facility, where gas piped down from the highlands is processes and exported.
Ulato was heavily involved from the start, getting the clan leaders to agree to give their land away, and setting up the landowning company that is managing the equity and royalty benefits flowing to the landowning clans.
“It’s been a long and hard journey to get here,’’ say’s Ulato as she reminisces on the years, the work put in, and what the future holds for her people.
She was vocal about issues that would affect her people. For a giant processing plant to sit on their traditional lands, her people had to get maximum value from the project. That was her fight.
The PNG LNG Project is an integrated development that includes gas production and processing facilities that extend from Hela, Southern Highlands, Western and Gulf provinces to Portion 152, the plant site outside Port Moresby.
A unitised project meant negotiations for benefits involved hundreds of land groups from five impacted provinces.
The outspoken Hela people whose land the well heads sit, the inland beneficiaries from Southern highlands, Gulf and Western where the 280km gas pipeline runs though and finally to Ulato’s villages on the motuan coast.
With all fighting for their rights to a fair share of the benefits from the gas project, it has not been easy, with landowner identification still a work in progress in Hela.
For Ulato, landowner identification has been settled, benefitting clans have opened bank accounts to receive cash directly, and a landowner company holding their participating interests set up. She chairs that company, Gas Resources PNG LNG Plant Limited, and is the only female in a male-dominated board.
They have begun receiving their royalty and equity benefits since 2017.
As chairperson of the landowner trust company, her role includes: Managing the benefits of the 70,000 landowning beneficiaries from the project which values up to K100 million per annum on average, and include royalty payments, community infrastructure projects and a future generation trust fund; represent landowners’ interest in various negotiations and ensuring their voice is heard; managing landowner expectations; and resolving disputes.
ExxonMobil has recognised the efforts of Ulato by nominating her for an award in the organisation’s annual Power Play Awards. These awards recognise and celebrate the accomplishments of remarkable women and men across Exxon’s global network who demonstrate how a mutually supportive environment can help support great business outcomes across all parts of the LNG value chain.
Ulato is vying for the Rainmaker Award, which honours a woman who has delivered outstanding business results, highlighting the value women bring to the LNG value chain.
In nominating Ulato, ExxonMobil PNG stated that their nominee gave a unique perspective of the LNG value chain.
“Ulato is a landowner of an area impacted by the PNG LNG operations. In a country where 97 per cent of land is customarily owned, land disputes between the State and the people is common, sometimes detrimental to the country in terms of economic benefits, when projects are affected by landowner issues.
“Operators of major resource projects have to tread cautiously as their success can depend on their relationship with landowners. Without a strong relationship with landowners, the project can face many challenges. In this case, Ulato’s leadership contribution is a standout, in helping to stabilise the operating environment of the billion PNG LNG project.
ExxonMobil said Ulato demonstrated poise, respect, intelligence, drive and passion for her people. She advocated for a better deal for her people during the initial states of the project through to this day.
“In the PNG context, and in the business of oil and gas, being a female and in such a position this is a huge achievement. Under her leadership, her board forges the way forward for landowner institutions to operate and succeed. We continue to see the positive difference she is making in her community and in this business.”
“It’s a wonderful recognition by EMPNG. I am overwhelmed and looking forward to being a finalist,” said Ulato when asked how she felt about her nomination.
Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) managing director, Augustine Mano was elated to hear of her nomination, saying the success of landowning company GR-PNG LNG Plant spoke a lot about her strong leadership and respect she earned from her people and the wider community.
“In the last three years under her leadership, they have delivered vital infrastructure projects such as schools and health centers and other facilities and services that contribute to improving their quality of life. The people in the four villages are far better off today, then prior to the PNG LNG project,” Mano said.
“We’re happy to see that Ulato is getting the recognition she deserves. We wish her the very best in her nomination and hope that she wins.”

• Story and pictures supplied by ExxonMobil PNG Ltd

Kama’s law thesis is a winner

A Papua new Guinean academic is the winner of the 2020 Hank Nelson Prize awarded by the Australian National University (ANU) College of Asia and the Pacific.
Dr Bal Kama was recognised for submitting the best Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis internationally on PNG society, making him the first from PNG to win the award.
He was conferred his PhD in Law from the ANU College of Law in March 2020 for his thesis titled Reconceptualising the Role of the Judiciary in Papua New Guinea’s Home-grown Constitution. The thesis examines the complex, often tense, relationship between the judiciary and the other arms of government in PNG and argues for a rethink of the traditional understanding of the separation of powers doctrine under the PNG Constitution.
The thesis engages with the constitutions of Australia, India, Kenya, South Africa and Brazil to support its findings. Having gone directly from his double Bachelors degree to PhD studies, skipping Masters degree, Dr Kama, at 32, sees his journey as a humble privilege and blessing. While studying for his PhD, Dr Kama published over 30 articles on affairs of PNG and the Pacific on various international forums and was invited to represent the Pacific in international meetings in the United Kingdom, Denmark and Canada.
“I am from a village in Gumine District in Chimbu, the academic said.
“I am the last of five children. We grew up and started our school in the village. My parents are subsistence villagers. My father Petrus Kama used to be an interpreter or tanim tok for the Australian kiaps during the colonial period where he worked to establish connections between the native tribes and government authority. He was determined for his children to go to school, so we all went to school despite the challenges of village life. My parents didn’t have much financially so I remember being often kicked out of primary school for not paying school fees.
“My education journey was diverse. I started schooling in the village, then went to Huonville Primary School in Lae, Morobe, and Evadahana and Mt Diamond in NCD and later to Kabiufa in Eastern Highlands. My Australian education journey started when one of my elder brothers, John, brought me to Australia to complete senior high school when he got a job there. I am grateful to him for his sacrifices. Studying in Australia was difficult at first, and there were lots of fun things to distract. While doing Grade 12, I also worked as a maintenance worker at my school in Sydney to assist with school fees.
“I was accepted into the University of Canberra to do a double degree in Bachelor of Law (with Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (Politics/International Relations). However, the university fees and living expenses were very costly so I worked two, sometimes three, casual labour jobs to raise funds.
“I was blessed to receive some financial assistance from some very kind individuals who heard about my challenges and a scholarship from the University of Canberra Law School at crucial times where I was about to give up on studies.
Kama said he learnt from these experiences the importance of hard work and persistence. Hard work, for Kama, means being focused, being disciplined, saying no to distractions and putting in the extra effort in work or in school.
“Achievements are meaningful and honourable when you put in the work for it.”
Persistence, he said, was about not giving up but keeping on pushing and believing even if it seems all doors are closed.
“In practising these values, I always keep in mind my village background and the people I represent and that inspires me to be better in what I do.”
His message for others
“Don’t let your social conditions become a barrier to achieving your goals. Think about ways you can overcome your challenges and do not be ashamed to seek advice from people you see as role models.
“Watch your company – spend quality time with those who will inspire and challenge you to grow. Academic success requires hard work, grit and persistency with a lot of humility.
What is his dream?
“I would like to get into legal practice and legal advisory roles and assist law, justice and constitutional reform efforts in the Pacific region. With an academic background in political science and international relations as well, I am also hoping to contribute to researching and engaging with the complex intersections of law, politics and diplomacy in the rregion.”
Other achievements

• Commonwealth Pacific Young Person of the Year Award in 2016 – invited to meet Queen Elizabeth in England
• Australian Government research scholarship – to do a PhD in Law at the Australian National University

Kama encountered many challenges in his academic journey including surviving a plane crash in Sydney during his PhD studies.
“In 2016 three friends and I were on a light aircraft sightseeing along the Sydney coastline. On our way back to the airport, one engine cut out and we had to crash-land in a paddock. While none of us were injured, the traumatic experience always reminds me of how fragile life is.”
An expert in public and constitutional law and governance in the Pacific, Dr Kama thanks God for the blessings and his family for all the support, love and encouragement.
In addition to acknowledging the support of his “wonderful team of supervisors” comprising Professor James Stellios and Drs Anthony Regan, Susan Priest and Ronald May and the Australian Government for the scholarship that supported his PhD studies, Dr Kama also paid tribute to the professionals in PNG whose perspectives helped shape his award-winning law thesis.
“I am very grateful to those who contributed to the content of the thesis, including PNG public servants, politicians, judges, academics and lawyers. They gave their time generously to be interviewed for their insights on the various dimensions of the thesis,” he added.
Dr Kama is hoping to convert his award-winning thesis into a book so that it can be available to the public to read and contribute to better understanding of the on-going discussions on the relationships between the arms of government in PNG.

• Story and pictures supplied