A non-government organisation in Papua New Guinea says landowners at a Liquified Natural Gas project site will continue to stall work in the area until the government responds to their compensation and employment demands.
The project developer, Esso Highlands Limited says a small group of people has stopped a portion of work on the onshore pipeline in the Awatangi area of Hela Province.
A spokesperson for LNG Watch, Stanley Mamu says the landowners believe they're owed 19 million US dollars and says they are upset by what he describes as the government's biased employment of workers for the project.
"They want proper compensation on their portion of land. The government plus the company buldozing the project there, the pipeline, without proper payment on their land compensation. That's one. Two, no employment. So what the people want is that government needs to employ our people because cash flow must be in our region."
