Interim committee set up for Green Field

An Interim Committee has been set up to represent landowners from the Green Field areas of the PNG LNG Project until such time the clan vetting process is completed.

It is hoped the interim leadership also exercises the “Kroton Equity Option” to close down their share of the 4.247 per cent indirect interest in the PNG LNG Project.

The Green Field areas represent PDL 1 and 7 (Hides 1 and 4), PDL 8 (Angore), and PDL 9 (Juha) and pipeline segments, and are areas where the clan vetting process has not been conducted to identify legitimate landowners and clans.

Minister for Petroleum and Energy, Nixon Duban, has set up the interim committee’s and it is expected that the Kroton Equity Option will be exercised by the end of January.

Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) Managing Director, Wapu Sonk, says the signing of documents by the four Governors from Southern Highlands, Hela, Central and Gulf Province to exercise the ‘Kroton Equity Option’ yesterday, keeps the option alive for the landowners to sign even after the December 31, deadline.

Hela Governor, William Powi, thanked Minister Duban for establishing a interim committee and said it should have been created a long tome ago.

“That interim arrangement should have been done some years back then. Then the landowners would have been in a position to go the bank or go to court.

“And so the Minister did the right thing. I’m calling on all the landowners out there to work with the interim committee,” Potape said.

In relation to exercising the ‘Kroton Equity Option, he said, “what we are doing now is we are holding onto the bridge, so that the landowners can cross it once they are clear.”

Author: 
Cedric Patjole