Commencing in 2024, the national government will release the first K60 million from a K600 million commitment over the next 10 years to identified landowners of the Papua LNG Project.
Landowners from 224 clans from Gulf and Central provinces will benefit from the first payment of K60 million. Minister for Petroleum and Energy, Kerenga Kua says this funding is purely a business grant. He says for the next nine years after 2024, the funding can be allocated towards infrastructural development, district projects and other necessary development.
Minister Kua says the formula used to calculate the government grants for impacted peoples of the Papua LNG Project is the same formula that was used to calculate government grants for landowners of the PNG LNG Project.
Kua: “I want to ensure the people impacted by the Papua LNG, they are not going to be treated any less or any better than the impacted people in the PNG LNG. They’ll be treated very same. We’ve used the same formula to calculate the grants.”
The Minister highlighted that the Papua LNG Project is yet to deliver production.
“That’s the kind of investment that the country is doing to help the impacted provinces and people get off the ground and organized, participate, and then when the project gets into production, we are all sharing the benefits throughout the country.”