PNGBLOGS

JAMES MONDOLAME The $16 billion Exxon Mobil-led LNG project is hyped to double PNG's gross domestic product with at least 30 years of gas sales to Asian buyers once it comes on line after 2014, but now we hear there is carnage and continued tension amongst landowners. Only yesterday the National reported that a raiding party consisting of frustrated landowners who were overlooked for employment and spin-off benefits raised fears about this project when they attacked and burnt equipment belonging to a company tied with the developer. This raises a lot of questions to everyone including myself, was there proper social mapping done to ensure everyone who lived on the project were accounted for? We need development, we do, but development that is carried out without properly assessing everyone affected affects us all. Since the Oil in Kutubu started flowing out of the Southern Highlands Province in1989, we have not seen anything as a footprint left by the oil and gas giant Chevron. Not

JAMES MONDOLAME The $16 billion Exxon Mobil-led LNG project is hyped to double PNG's gross domestic product with at least 30 years of gas sales to Asian buyers once it comes on line after 2014, but now we hear there is carnage and continued tension amongst landowners. Only yesterday the National reported that a raiding party consisting of frustrated landowners who were overlooked for employment and spin-off benefits raised fears about this project when they attacked and burnt equipment belonging to a company tied with the developer. This raises a lot of questions to everyone including myself, was there proper social mapping done to ensure everyone who lived on the project were accounted for? We need development, we do, but development that is carried out without properly assessing everyone affected affects us all. Since the Oil in Kutubu started flowing out of the Southern Highlands Province in1989, we have not seen anything as a footprint left by the oil and gas giant Chevron.