PNG LNG Project: A Pie in the Sky [1]
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - 17:00. Updated on Sunday, May 25, 2014 - 21:29.
Editor,
With all due respect to the Crown Prince, I wouldn't be rushing to pack my bags for a trip to Papua New Guinea, with the expectation of getting a job on the LNG project. And here's why:
First of all, just Google "Esso Highlands Project, Papua New Guinea", and you will discover the following:
1) The contracts for the project have already been let . . . to companies in the USA, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and Europe. Tonga isn't on the list, and the listed contractors will no doubt be bringing their own "national" employees to do the job.
2) The actual number of jobs on this project will "peak at about 7,500 in 2010."
That's a far cry from 16,000.
3) This type of project requires skilled labor, and Tonga does not have a pool of such: surveyors, heavy equipment operators, welders, pipe fitters, masons, carpenters, electricians, civil engineers, project managers, accountants, etc etc etc.
4) The only jobs which might be available for Tongans are probably "unskilled labor", and most of those jobs will be filled by PNG natives.
5) Even if a Tongan were able to get an unskilled labor job on this project, it's worth noting that the wages would probably be on the order of 5 PNG kina per hour (that's about TOP$135 per week) . . . minus housing, food and transportation costs, no doubt. Not much "take home" there . . .
So, it would appear that this prospect of jobs for Tongans in PNG makes for a nice "feel good" press announcement, but it amounts to nothing more, in reality, than "Pie in the Sky" . . . much like the Eua "Space Port", or the Korean "seawater to hydrogen" project, or "seabed mining", or just about anything designed by Dr Wong.
For Tongans, it's not an "opportunity" . . . it's wishful thinking.
P. A. Langi
Ha'apai