Fears major gas project could spark social unrest
IRIN NEWS There are fears that a multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea (PNG) could lead to social unrest: Just one year into the four-year construction phase of the project there are some ominous signs, observers say. Outside the capital Port Moresby near the LNG plant site, young men employed by Esso Highlands (a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil), the company running the project, guzzle their earnings, disrupting Sunday church with rowdy drunkenness, while in a nearby village, five people were recently killed in a land dispute, according to an independent social and environmental compliance monitoring report . “While there’s potential for positive access to resources for funds for development, there’s also the potential to exacerbate conflict as we have seen in the past in Bougainville and in other countries that have a natural resource boom,” said Jock Paul, a humanitarian affairs officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Human