Photo Credit: Oil Search Limited
Despite obstacles posed by the Covid-19 epidemic, the Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas (PNG LNG) project had its greatest production and best safety performance since its inception, according to departing ExxonMobil PNG managing director Andrew Barry.
Barry said that the team achieved record LNG production levels, delivering the company’s best safety performance since production commenced while continuing to meet environmental and social commitments.
“EMPNG has completed over 70 million hours of work since production began and had no lost time incidents for more than three years, with no significant process safety events for almost seven years,” he said.
“A significant milestone was achieved on Sept 1 with EMPNG’s first shift fully managed and operated by qualified Papua New Guineans workers.
“This included the Hides Gas Conditioning Plant and Pipeline operations supervisors, and control room, field and pipeline technicians.”
By the end of 2020, the PNG LNG workforce would have grown to 2,784 workers and contractors, according to the annual PNG LNG environmental and social report issued last month.
Due to the suspension of several upstream region projects as a consequence of travel and limitations caused by the pandemic, this number was decreased from 3,964 employees at the end of 2019.
The overall workforce of the PNG LNG project is made up of 91% Papua New Guineans.
In 2020, EMPNG contributed K8.4 million to local communities in the form of contributions, sponsorships, in-kind assistance, and community-based initiatives.
The PNG LNG project's contract with ANU Enterprise Proprietary Ltd was renewed, allowing the community lifestyle improvement project (Clip), which began in 2015, to continue.
Clip is assisting communities in Hides, Juni, Nogoli, Angore, and Komo in gaining financial independence and improving their living conditions by providing training and assistance in areas such as nutrition, financial literacy, and agricultural practices.
The five-year head starts conservation initiative, financed by EMPNG and administered by the Port Moresby Nature Park, was also completed last year.
Last year, 36,650 stakeholders participated in over 5,400 community interactions, including over 2,000 official and roughly 3,400 informal encounters.
Community interactions were conducted in line with Covid-19 safe practices, with the majority of the engagements focusing on boosting Covid-19 awareness.
Through the infrastructure tax credit projects, an additional K57.4 million was spent on local infrastructure.
Since construction began, more than K10 billion has been invested in community projects and local infrastructure.
Peter Larden, EMPNG's new managing director, congratulated Barry for his six years of leadership, which had left a legacy.
“I look forward to building upon the standards he and EMPNG have set to further cement PNG’s reputation as a world class LNG producer and to be able to contribute in a sustainable and meaningful way to enhancing the communities in which we operate and the nation of PNG,” he said.
Reference:
The National (6 July 2021). “Project records highest output”.
