PNG to send troops to guard LNG, gold projects Reuters April 2nd, 2012 |
The Papua New Guinea government
is to send troops to guard two major resources projects on
Monday after people disrupted work at the sites, the prime
minister's office said in a statement. The troops will be deployed at Exxon Mobil's $15.7
billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Southern
Highlands province and Barrick Gold's Porgera gold mine
in Enga province. "It is totally unacceptable that law and order has broken
down in those areas," the office of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill
said in a statement. "Such behaviour has placed the lives of innocent people at
risk, and disrupting work at the LNG project and operations at a
mine that is a key contributor to the national economy." The office did not say how many soldiers would be sent. Work at a part of Exxon's gas export project, known as PNG
LNG, was stopped for about two weeks last month after landowners
demanding additional compensation for their land stormed a work
site and threatened workers. Illegal miners stopped work at Barrick's Porgera open pit
gold mine late last week, attacking workers and damaging
equipment, prompting Barrick to ask the government to intervene,
the prime minister's office said. The National Executive Council approved sending troops to
PNG LNG last week, while the troops are being sent to Porgera
under a troop call-out order from 2009 which is still in effect. The Porgera gold mine is 95 percent owned and operated by a
Barrick subsidiary, with the remainder owned by the Papua New
Guinea government. Exxon's LNG project is a joint venture between Exxon Mobil,
Oil Search, Santos, Japan's JX Nippon Oil and
Gas Exploration, a unit of JX Holdings, and the Papua
New Guinea government. |