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Showing posts with the label landowners

PNGSDP willing to help finance LNG landowner equity

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MEDIA RELEASE The chairman of PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd, Sir Mekere Morauta, said today the company is willing to help provide debt finance to enable wellhead and facilities landowners buy equity in the PNG LNG Project. He said PNGSDP is happy to participate as the PNG-based member of a consortium of overseas financiers to provide a facility totaling K725 million (US$230 million) to allow the landowners to pay the State for their 4.27 per cent interest that was agreed under the Umbrella Benefit Sharing Agreement (UBSA) reached in 2009 between the Somare Government and the landowners. The wellhead and facilities landowners included in the equity holding cover groups within the PNG LNG project footprint from Western, Hela, Southern Highlands, Gulf and Central Provinces. PNGSDP was set up to hold shares in Ok Tedi Mining Ltd for the benefit of the people of Western Province and Papua New Guinea. Since the expropriation of its shares by the Government, it does not receive

PMIZ MAKE SLAVES OF LOCALS

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Madang Sunrise ; Photo Credit Jan Messersmith by MARINA WAITA PMIZ promises spin-off business for landowners but would not allow locals to participate. When one talks of project development, three major parties are involved; the investors, the government and the landowners.  There would be consultation and understanding before any agreement is signed, finalized and launched before operations begin. But has this been the trend here in Papua New Guinea? For the case of Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) in Madang Province, the answer is a big NO. There has never been proper consultation between the National Government and investors with the landowners of the Vidar site where the PMIZ project is located. The landowner’s constant struggles to make the government understand that they do not want the project seem to be falling on deaf ears. As they continue to raise concerns for the environment, potential creation of social problems and lack of real benefit in regards to

PNG Politics is Unpredictable

TUNGUBE IGINI AFTER adjourning parliament, the government thought it would be safe to continue until 2012. But PNG is the land of the unexpected and its politics is unpredictable.  The URP and NA marriage is cracking after James Marape was appointed Hela Transitional Authority (HTA) chairman. It was bitter for Governor Anderson Agiru, who just returned from New York after delivering the gas agreement. With Sir Puka Temu out of the way, Sir Michael Somare will now have to contend with Agiru. With that in mind, two things may happen. NA must now accommodate URP’s demands or face a vote of no-confidence. Either way, it will be costly for NA. Whatever happens, the Hela people and the LNG project proponents will feel the impact and Agiru and Sir Michael must know that good things like the Hela gas comes from God. Corruption, hijacking and manipulation are not God’s ways and rewards. Hela sons Agiru and Marape must put Hela’s interest first before politics. The proposed province and Hela gas

PNG Politics is Unpredictable

TUNGUBE IGINI AFTER adjourning parliament, the government thought it would be safe to continue until 2012. But PNG is the land of the unexpected and its politics is unpredictable.  The URP and NA marriage is cracking after James Marape was appointed Hela Transitional Authority (HTA) chairman. It was bitter for Governor Anderson Agiru, who just returned from New York after delivering the gas agreement. With Sir Puka Temu out of the way, Sir Michael Somare will now have to contend with Agiru. With that in mind, two things may happen. NA must now accommodate URP’s demands or face a vote of no-confidence. Either way, it will be costly for NA. Whatever happens, the Hela people and the LNG project proponents will feel the impact and Agiru and Sir Michael must know that good things like the Hela gas comes from God. Corruption, hijacking and manipulation are not God’s ways and rewards. Hela sons Agiru and Marape must put Hela’s interest first before politics. The proposed province and Hel

Many risks to PNG mining boom as landowners fight projects

ROWAN CALLICK AUSTRALIAN investment in Papua New Guinea's resurgent resources sector is booming, but the risks have been underlined by dramatic events. There was a violent raid on a construction camp at Kikori for the $16.5 billion ExxonMobil-Oil Search-Santos liquefied natural gas project. Kikori is in Gulf province northwest of Port Moresby. As well, the developers have won the latest round of a colossal court battle over the disposal of tailings from the $1.8bn Ramu Nickel mine, under construction by Chinese state-owned giant Metallurgical Construction Corporation, with Brisbane-based Highlands Gold a minority stakeholder. The common theme in both cases is the role of frustrated, opportunistic or worried landowners. The attack at Kikori came at night, when no one was working at the site, so there were no injuries, but a Caterpillar 740 dumptruck -- which routinely costs $250,000 secondhand -- and another truck were destroyed by fire, and other equipment was damaged severely, som

Many risks to PNG mining boom as landowners fight projects

ROWAN CALLICK AUSTRALIAN investment in Papua New Guinea's resurgent resources sector is booming, but the risks have been underlined by dramatic events. There was a violent raid on a construction camp at Kikori for the $16.5 billion ExxonMobil-Oil Search-Santos liquefied natural gas project. Kikori is in Gulf province northwest of Port Moresby. As well, the developers have won the latest round of a colossal court battle over the disposal of tailings from the $1.8bn Ramu Nickel mine, under construction by Chinese state-owned giant Metallurgical Construction Corporation, with Brisbane-based Highlands Gold a minority stakeholder. The common theme in both cases is the role of frustrated, opportunistic or worried landowners. The attack at Kikori came at night, when no one was working at the site, so there were no injuries, but a Caterpillar 740 dumptruck -- which routinely costs $250,000 secondhand -- and another truck were destroyed by fire, and other equipment was damaged severe

PNG LNG PROJECT COST STEADY AT US$15 BILLION

REUTERS The PNG LNG project in Papua New Guinea will stay within its original cost estimates of $15 billion with the first sales by 2014, a government minister said speaking at a conference in Singapore on Wednesday. Paul Tiensten, Papua New Guinea's minister of planning and development, said PNG LNG is still expected to make it's first sales of LNG in early 2014. "We want to sell the first gas by 2014, that is our target... in case of some slippage, we have a contingency plan in place, but so far, we are on target," Tiensten said. Media reports have suggested that the project could be delayed due to landowner disputes with the government. But Tiensten said current landowner disagreements were among the approximately 60,000 landowners affected by the project, some of whom question the division of benefits from the PNG LNG. "I think there are some dissatisfied people because they feel that they should be part of it. This project is a mega-project, it has generated

PNG LNG PROJECT COST STEADY AT US$15 BILLION

REUTERS The PNG LNG project in Papua New Guinea will stay within its original cost estimates of $15 billion with the first sales by 2014, a government minister said speaking at a conference in Singapore on Wednesday. Paul Tiensten, Papua New Guinea's minister of planning and development, said PNG LNG is still expected to make it's first sales of LNG in early 2014. "We want to sell the first gas by 2014, that is our target... in case of some slippage, we have a contingency plan in place, but so far, we are on target," Tiensten said. Media reports have suggested that the project could be delayed due to landowner disputes with the government. But Tiensten said current landowner disagreements were among the approximately 60,000 landowners affected by the project, some of whom question the division of benefits from the PNG LNG. "I think there are some dissatisfied people because they feel that they should be part of it. This project is a mega-project, it has ge

Plaintiffs disappear and pull out of PNG waste dumping case

LIAM FOX There are fears for the safety of three missing landowners involved in a case against a big nickel mine in Papua New Guinea. The lawyer acting for a group of landowners, trying to stop a mine from dumping waste into the sea, says she has not heard from her clients since Sunday afternoon. Tiffany Nonggorr says other people connected to the case have been threatened and bashed. "I'm concerned that they've been hurt or held against their will," she said. In March, the landowners won a temporary injunction preventing the Ramu nickel mine from building a deep-sea tailings pipeline to dump waste into Astrolabe Bay off Madang. A judge was due to begin hearings today to decide whether to lift the ban or make it permanent. Ms Nonggorr says she does not know what the plaintiffs' disappearances mean for the case. "I have absolutely no idea. All we can do is try and locate them," she said. Police say they will be out in force around the courthouse to keep t

Plaintiffs disappear and pull out of PNG waste dumping case

LIAM FOX There are fears for the safety of three missing landowners involved in a case against a big nickel mine in Papua New Guinea. The lawyer acting for a group of landowners, trying to stop a mine from dumping waste into the sea, says she has not heard from her clients since Sunday afternoon. Tiffany Nonggorr says other people connected to the case have been threatened and bashed. "I'm concerned that they've been hurt or held against their will," she said. In March, the landowners won a temporary injunction preventing the Ramu nickel mine from building a deep-sea tailings pipeline to dump waste into Astrolabe Bay off Madang. A judge was due to begin hearings today to decide whether to lift the ban or make it permanent. Ms Nonggorr says she does not know what the plaintiffs' disappearances mean for the case. "I have absolutely no idea. All we can do is try and locate them," she said. Police say they will be out in force around the courthouse to

LNG WORKERS STILL A PROBLEM

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OP/ED THE PNG gas agreement was signed between the state and ExxonMobil in May 2008. At that point, it was almost certain that a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project would become a reality, at least in so far as the government was concerned. Along the way, several other agreements were negotiated and signed, including the two benefits sharing agreements, finalisation of markets, the environmental impact study, front end engineering and design, execution planning, project financing, gas marketing and all the regulatory and permitting work including community and landowner consultation and financial closure. Despite all that, two years on and PNG is still struggling to get sub-contractors organised for the project and is critically short on manpower. Already, there is talk about recruiting welders from neighbouring Fiji and even heavy equipment operators from overseas. This would indicate to us that the government was so concerned with getting the project off the ground that it neglected

LNG WORKERS STILL A PROBLEM

Image
OP/ED THE PNG gas agreement was signed between the state and ExxonMobil in May 2008. At that point, it was almost certain that a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project would become a reality, at least in so far as the government was concerned. Along the way, several other agreements were negotiated and signed, including the two benefits sharing agreements, finalisation of markets, the environmental impact study, front end engineering and design, execution planning, project financing, gas marketing and all the regulatory and permitting work including community and landowner consultation and financial closure. Despite all that, two years on and PNG is still struggling to get sub-contractors organised for the project and is critically short on manpower. Already, there is talk about recruiting welders from neighbouring Fiji and even heavy equipment operators from overseas. This would indicate to us that the government was so concerned with getting the project off the ground that it neglected

Rush for resources

ALJazeera Papua New Guinea is cashing in on its wealth of natural resources. Last December, Sir Michael Somare, the country's prime minister, signed a $16bn deal to pipe liquid natural gas to Asia, promising to double the nation's GDP. But despite these economic windfalls, wealth and life expectancy are on the decline. Frustrated locals are up in arms, saying they no longer trust the government or developers to deliver on promises. On this edition of 101 East we ask, how much of Papua New Guinea's wealth of natural resources is reaching its people?

Rush for resources

ALJazeera Papua New Guinea is cashing in on its wealth of natural resources. Last December, Sir Michael Somare, the country's prime minister, signed a $16bn deal to pipe liquid natural gas to Asia, promising to double the nation's GDP. But despite these economic windfalls, wealth and life expectancy are on the decline. Frustrated locals are up in arms, saying they no longer trust the government or developers to deliver on promises. On this edition of 101 East we ask, how much of Papua New Guinea's wealth of natural resources is reaching its people?