Landowners in Papua New Guinea have urged their provincial government to support state negotiations over a major gas deal.
An ExxonMobil LNG Project plant near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
A negotiating team from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy is nearing a deadline to settle the deal to develop the P'Nyang gas field.
Reaching agreement on terms with energy giant ExxonMobil has so far been difficult .
A number of MPs in Western Province, where the field is located, have called for the negotiations to be put on hold.
But landowners representing license area villages say they support the negotiations.
A spokesperson for the landowners, Lee Ila, told EMTV that the community needed development.
"The government of the day, especially Western Province provincial government, they can't afford to go into our villages which is most remote areas," he said.
"And we are lacking basic services. People are dying of curable diseases."