TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies chairman and chief executive officer, Patrick Pouyanné affirmed his commitment when meeting Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape on the weekend.

They met to discuss the status of the Papua LNG project.

The new chairperson and Managing Director of ExxonMobil PNG Limited, Tera Shandro, was also acknowledged with the new Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific for TotalEnergies, Thomas Maurisse.

Shandro was appointed in May 2023, replacing Peter Larden, who became the senior upstream and low carbon solutions advisor to the ExxonMobil Corporation executive committee in Texas.

“There is also a change of leadership in Exxon, who are an outsized player and contributor to our economy,” said the PNG Chamber of Resources and Energy president, Anthony Smare.

TotalEnergies launched its Zero Net Deforestation (ZND) policy for all new projects across the company in March 2022 and PNG was the first country to implement this policy.

The ZND policy requires that any unavoidable deforestation of the forest cover is compensated by, at least, an equal area replanted elsewhere. 

In partnership with the PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA), the core of the Papua LNG ZND project covers four projects: Afforestation, Biodiversity, Mangrove Rehabilitation & Conservation and Sandalwood Conservation.

The determination identifies 224 clans in total. One hundred and thirty-eight (138) were from the Gulf Province, and 86 were from the Central Province. According to Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta, at least 120 more clans are missing from this determination. 

Gulf Province leaders are unhappy with the ministerial determination of the Papua LNG Landowners and are demanding a fair process.  

In no order of priority, Prime Minister James Marape listed them as ExxonMobil PNG, TotalEnergies, Newmont Corporation and Barrick Niugini Ltd.

“One is a big gas company; one is a big oil company. You look at the mining business, two of the biggest; Newmont is the biggest, my friend Mr (Mark) Bristow will agree that Barrick is right up there.

“Where else in the whole world do you have ‘the big four’ in one country, let alone a developing country?

He said it was an eye-opener upon his arrival in the country as he spoke very highly of the peoples’ hospitality and friendliness.

“I discovered the many welcoming people and also the site which is so beautiful,” he said.

However, due to the remoteness of Purari and its communities, Mr Pouget described the logistics aspect of the operation to be very challenging, given there are no roads within the project area, which can only be accessed by air and river.