P’nyang must be a standalone project: Local MP

The P’nyang project in the Western Province will not be in any way tied to the current foundation PNG LNG Project, says North Fly MP James Donald.

He said the P’nyang Project will be a stand-alone project that will form an integral part of Western LNG whose combined processing facility will be built near Daru in Western Province.

Currently, Western Province has two other upcoming gas projects apart from P’nyang which include Elevala Ketu and Stanley Gas with Juha already running under PNG LNG Project.

He said learning from past lessons from the current LNG Project in Hela Province, P’nyang and other gas projects in Western Province will not be allowed to be mortgaged or tied to any existing projects under any circumstances.

Donald said as far as his district and Western Province as a whole is concerned, the local people who are the rightful resource owners must be given fair and equitable participation to get the maximum benefits from resources extracted on their land.

He said these include spin off benefits such as employment, business ventures for local landowner companies including business development grants apart from equity and royalty payments.

Donald has also assured his people that he will not sit back and allow the corporate giants collaborating with the Government to bulldoze through to place his people on a position that will disadvantage them but will fight for what is rightfully theirs under the current provision of laws governing the oil and gas development in the country.

Author: 
Freddy Mou