Total to identify impact of project

MORE than 30,000 people in Gulf will be directly impacted by the Papua LNG project, according to Total E&P PNG Limited managing director Philippe Blanchard.
He said the area covered 41 communities, eight languages and five ecological zones.
He said environment and social studies were carried out in the communities.
“At the moment, we are trying to translate into Tok Pisin. But I’m not sure if we are able to translate everything into the eight languages,” he said.
“We are going from swamp areas to coastal and forests, so very different sensitive environments.
“Within the framework defined by the law, we have to perform environment and social studies.
“So we have to clearly identify what is going to be the impact on the environment.
“We spent a lot of time on PRL 15, very little on the pipeline route.
“We will engage more and more with the communities along the way.
“We started in January 2016, we ended in February 2017.
“We’ve been looking at marine environment, terrestrial environment, forestry environment, potential impact on the floras and ground water.
“All of these are defined under the frameworks of the law and we have to do it.
“We hope to provide by year end the full results so that we can be granted in the course of 2018, an environment permit.
“Without an environment permit, you can’t sanction the project.”