Court action stops PNG multi-billion dollar gas project

Updated April 22, 2009 15:19:53

Landowners in Papua New Guinea got a court order on Tuesday preventing the multi billion dollar liquified natural gas project from proceeding. The stay will determine who are the legitimate landowners in line for a sizeable share of royalties from the $11 billion deal. Questions had earlier been raised about the legitimacy of any agreement, with some affected landowners saying they've been left out.


Presenter Geraldine Coutts

Speaker: ABC Port Moresby Correspondent Liam Fox.

LIAM FOX: These landowners are from Kutubu. The landowners we spoke to you yesterday were from the Hides area in the Southern Highlands. Now, these guys from Kutubu are saying that the process used by the Department of Petroleum and Energy to select landowner representatives to take part in these negotiations is flawed and that the people that they've chosen aren't genuine landowners. They also say that the Government hasn't conducted the necessary social mapping and landowner demarcation needed to properly identify the relevant landowners. So they went to the National Court and they've obtained a restraining order, preventing the negotiations from going ahead. And that's until all the parties get together, back in the National Court. So already there's been a big spanner thrown into the works.

GERALDINE COUTTS: So, where are the divisions? Is it landowners on one side and government on the other, or are landowners now becoming divided as well?

LIAM FOX: I think it's more landowners vs Government, because they're saying that the proper landowners haven't been identified, and they're not taking part in these negotiations. These negotiations are due to start on the island of New Britain tomorrow. So, we've heard from two groups now, the guys from Hides yesterday, and the guys from Kutubu, who say that the proper representatives, the genuine representatives, haven't been selected. They still want the LNG project to go ahead, they just believe that the wrong people are there to discuss who's going to get the royalties and development levies that are expected to flow from it.

GERALDINE COUTTS: Back in court, is this likely to derail the process either indefinitely or permanently?

LIAM FOX: Well, I guess we'll really find out tomorrow what's going to happen. We've spoken to a spokesmen from the Department of Petroleum and Energy this morning. He said briefly that they believe negotiations should be able to start tomorrow, but he's in the process of getting advice from his lawyers. So, the big test will be what happens in court tomorrow. But some old PNG hands believe this is just the Melanesian way, things will settle themselves out.

GERALDINE COUTTS: How many people are we talking about, in terms of landowners - those who are legitimate and those who are not - that are involved in this case?

LIAM FOX: Well, a fortnight ago, the Petroleum Minister actually put out a full-page newspaper advertisement, saying that they were still working to identify the legitimate landowners, and this was only a fortnight ago. In it he said that there were some 60,000 affected landowners involved in this LNG project and there were about 500 representatives that have been selected to take part in these negotiations.