A Papua LNG landowner representative is urging the National Government to resolve critical disputes over landowner identification, consent, and project benefits before rushing to finalize the project’s Final Investment Decision (FID).

Responding to Prime Minister James Marape’s September 24 statement, Meagher Marva Haro-Taylor—managing partner of Harma Capital Connect and a Papua LNG landowner—argued that the government’s focus on a December 15 FID deadline ignores fundamental state responsibilities and local property rights.

The Prime Minister has appealed to local landowners and the Gulf and Central provincial governments to reach an agreement by November. This timeline is aimed at helping project partners raise US$14.5 billion in international capital.

While Haro-Taylor acknowledged that the Papua LNG project must remain globally competitive, she stressed that commercial deadlines should not replace concrete answers to the landowner grievances.

According to Haro-Taylor, current tensions stem from a failure by the Government and the National Petroleum Authority (DPE/NPA) to independently verify rightful landowners. She alleged that the state relied heavily on a developer-produced Social Mapping and Landowner Identification Study (SMLIS) from 2022 (amended in 2025), which remains hidden from the public.

Key unresolved issues highlighted in the statement include:

• Excluded Clans: Multiple clans remain excluded from the official register and the Ministerial Determination, with disputes currently sitting before the courts and the Petroleum Minister.
• Withdrawn Consent: All 11 clans within the Elk-Antelope Gas Project Area Landowner Association formally withdrew their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) on July 10, 2026. No state investigation into this withdrawal has been launched.
• Discrepant Population Data: Official documents show wildly conflicting estimates of the affected population, swinging from 12,700 in the upstream Environmental Impact Statement to over 63,000 in forum documentation.

(Note: These claims were issued by the landowner representative; the Prime Minister's Office and the National Petroleum Authority have not yet provided a formal response to these specific points).

Haro-Taylor raised serious concerns over equity allocations, noting that clans lack the funding to secure independent legal, financial, and technical advice. She pointed out the disparity of allocating K100 million to run the development forum while ring-fencing zero funds for independent landowner representation.

Furthermore, the decision to pipeline Elk and Antelope gas to processing facilities in Central Province—rather than developing infrastructure within Gulf Province, where the resource originates—remains unexplained to local leaders and landowners.

Haro-Taylor firmly rejected the Prime Minister’s characterization that landowner demands amount to "greed suffocating what is good for all." She maintained that demanding a verified register, enforceable equity transparency, and infrastructural explanations are basic resource-owner rights.

The statement clarified that landowners do not oppose the Papua LNG project itself, but they refuse to sign agreements under intense deadline pressure. Doing so, Haro-Taylor warned, would simply move the battlefield from the negotiation table to the national courts.

Citing a 2025 complaint over alleged breaches of the Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards—which reportedly led 32 financial institutions to rule out funding the project—she urged the State to learn from historical precedents like Bougainville and resolve underlying grievances before demanding signatures.