PNG LNG Project

Key takeaways:

Gas Resources PNGLNG Pipeline Limited (GR PNGLNGP) Board has approved a combined dividend and royalty payment to be paid to project area landowners from Segment 2 and 3 of the PNG LNG Pipeline License No.4 (PL4) area.

Segments 2 and covers the Benaria & Homo-Paua regions of Hela and consists of 174 benefitting clans.

There areas are part of the eight segment areas, which are PNG LNG project impacted area

MRDC will make payments at Benaria village in Komo-Magarima District, Hela Province.

In congratulating the Hela-based landowner company, ExxonMobil PNG (EMPNG) Limited’s national content manager, Sisa Kini, said: “We are proud of HGDC Energy Services’ achievement and success. Continued growth in the capacity and capability of local companies is central not only to EMPNG's success but also the economic development of Papua New Guinea.”

Since 2009, they have made workforce development a core business priority by initiating a variety of programs including:

Hides landowners have been waiting for over 25 years for their royalties. NCDC Governor Powes Parkop made this point in Parliament yesterday (Nov 26) afternoon when asking the Petroleum Minister, Kerenga Kua, about the progress of the LNG Project.

“Mi been lawyer blo ol landowners involve lo PDL 1-4 back in 1994. And many of these landowners i no kisim royalty blo ol inap i kam now. Because yumi gim excuse olsem i no gat social mapping na second olsem ol landowners i kot. Mi laik askim: What is the status of all these royalties? Social mapping em completed or not?”

He expressed this sentiment during the 10-year celebration of partnership between three landowner companies and the PNG LNG project.

ExxonMobil PNG on August 8^th hosted board and senior managers of the three landowner companies (lancos) of Hides Gas Development Company, Laba Holdings Ltd and Trans Wonderland Ltd at the PNG LNG plant site to celebrate a decade of partnership with the LNG project. Also at the celebration was fellow landowner and Prime Minister James Marape.  

The LOBID exercise, which was formerly known as clan vetting, is an important prerequisite, for a Ministerial Determination under s.169A of the Oil and Gas Act.

Minister Pok said; “The main objective of the LOBID exercise is to conduct a review with the potential beneficiaries in Hides and across the PNG LNG Project footprint, all the information on Project Area Landowners that have been collected, collated and finalised. This needs to be done so that Ministerial Determination is fulfilled, before any release of legislated cash benefits.” 

The book was presented to the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) as one of PNG’s only long term high biodiversity data sets for the country.

The book describes the biodiversity in the Hela and Southern Highlands provinces in 2015 as well as the methods used to undertake the biodiversity surveys. It highlights the large number of plants, frogs and mammals species found in two of the major provinces of PNG.

In a statement on July 20^th, Oil Search Limited Managing Director, Peter Botten, said the mid-term LNG SPA with PetroChina International (Hong Kong) Corporation Limited (PCI) is for a supply of approximately 0.45 million tons of  per annum (MTPA) of LNG over a three-year period.

This SPA takes the total contracted volumes from the Project to 7.0 MTPA, with 6.6 MT of PNG LNG's annual output already committed under long-term contracts to JERA, Osaka Gas, Sinopec and CPC.

Mineral Resources Development Company Managing Director, Augustine Mano, says the Ministerial Determination for the pipeline segments is the first step to realising the payment of royalties and equities.

He said if there are no objections then steps to begin payments will be initiated.

“The royalties are with the Central Bank, the only one that has been paid out to the plant site landowners,” Mano said.

“All the equities are with MRDC and we are just waiting for the clan vetting process to be done.

He said this during the company’s 2018 Annual General Meeting in Port Moresby yesterday.

Botten also highlighted their focus on the expansion opportunities and new developments, address benefit distribution issues and a major drilling program in Alaska.

Botten said following the devastating earthquake in February, they are well on track to restore full production of its operations.

Currently, he says they are at around 80 percent of oil production capacity.