TOTAL SA

PNG’s oil and gas company, Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd, as a partner with the project developer TOTAL SA, has come up with an agreement to have KPHL staff undergo training with TOTAL SA in Paris on marketing our gas to buyers.

Announcing two senior employees on secondment with Total SA for 2 years, Kumul Petroleum Managing Director Wapu Sonk said the secondment is part of staff development and also signifies a milestone in assigning KPHL staff to the Total and Kumul Marketing Joint Venture.

Baimuru landowner representatives for the Papua LNG project in Kikori District want to allow more time for awareness and consultation.

Deputy president and chairman of the oil and gas for Baimuru LLG, Omaro O. Karara, said there was inadequate awareness among the impacted communities and the proposed dates set by the developer are not convenient.

The French company is the developer of PNG’s next LNG project – the Papua LNG in Gulf Province.

The company moved to engage the Danish Institute of Human Rights to undertake a human rights impact assessment in its project footprint.

This is a process for systematically identifying, predicting and responding to the potential human rights impacts of this project.

This involves directly engaging with those people whose rights may be at risk.

The institute undertook the assessment this year and produced a report which Total is currently going through.

John Poha, Executive Officer of the Larivita Hela Landowner Group Incorporated, made the statements following announcements by the company that it will stick with its original plan to develop the Caution Bay plant.

Poha has labeled resource company Total SA as ‘arrogant’, ‘insensitive’ and ‘greedy’ to the people of the province.

He said they are all for development but want the plant to remain in the province and not piped to Caution Bay as they would not benefit economically. This was the demand of the landowners.

Minister for Petroleum and Energy, Nixon Duban, said the Government respected the decision by Total as the decision wass based on project economics.

Duban made the statement in Parliament this week when asked by Kairuku-Hiri MP, Peter Isoiamo, to clarify on where the plant site would be as the Caution Bay location is situated within his jurisdiction and close to the PNG LNG Site.

Gulf Governor, Havila Kavo, has been vocal about having the plant site in his Province and not in Central Province.

The venture will see the company provide gas power and renewable energy during the lifespan of the Papua LNG project which is anticipated to begin construction next year.

Total PNG CEO, Philippe Blanchard, said during the Petroleum and Energy Summit in Port Moresby that the company has been preparing for this with the establishment of the company’s ‘gas power and renewables’ arm.

“The ambition of the company through that fourth branch is to be able to within 20 years have 20 per cent of its business coming from gas power and renewables.

Following a meeting yesterday, Prime Minister O’Neill said he looked forward to Rielo advancing the Papua LNG project led by TOTAL.

“The Papua LNG project is the next major resources project for our nation and will deliver around 13,000 Papua New Guinean jobs in the construction phase alone,” the Prime Minister said.

“This will be around 10,000 working in production areas close to Port Moresby and 3,000 working in on-site areas.

“We thank TOTAL for its ongoing confidence through its investment in Papua New Guinea.

Kavo said this following the release of Gulf LNG operator, Total SA’s, Environmental Impact Study (EIS) yesterday justifying the company’s reasons to build its LNG Plant Site in Caution Bay in the Central Province.

He said the report ignored the ‘No Pipeline Policy’ affirmed by the Provincial Government and people.

This will follow once ExxonMobil’s entry into the PRL 15 Joint Venture has been confirmed once its bid and acquisition of InterOil is completed.

OilSearch announced in a media release that ExxonMobil’s entry into the PRL 15 Joint Venture underscored the potential value that would be created by cooperation.

This would position OilSearch to benefit from a cooperative development, given its material interests in all the key gas resources, including PRL 3(38.5%), PRL 15 (23%) and the PNG LNG Project (29%).

He believes that over the next five years this will see 10,000 Papua New Guineans employed in the construction phase, new education and training programs and downstream benefits for thousands of small businesses.

“The people of our nation need only look around their communities and towns to see the change that is happening in only a few short years as we have implemented the core policies we took to the 2012 election.