These included demarcation of tribal groups and clans - from the northernmost Juha gas field in Western Province, to the Hides and Angore fields in Hela Province, the oil and gas fields at Kutubu, and Moran and Gobe in Southern Highlands, where work had been previously done on land ownership.

On receipt of the report, Duma had made no public comment on the nature and content of this work, even though this was a clear prerequisite prior to the granting of a development licence and for the start of project work.

A couple of months ago, and almost four years since he received the original ExxonMobil social mapping study, Duma proclaimed that studies to date were inadequate and his department needed to carry out further studies to determine the real landowners within the five provinces connected with the project.

Besides the gas-producing areas in Western Province, Hela and Southern Highlands, there was Gulf Province - through which the gas pipeline passes - and the LNG plant site in Central Province, just outside Port Moresby.

Sources have indicated that significant genealogical work had been carried out at the villages near the LNG plant site, but this activity had been stopped by Duma prior to its completion. Although ExxonMobil had already done this work, the social mapping activity halted by Duma had been outsourced by the government-owned Konebada Petroleum Park.

Duma has now seen fit to restart detailed genealogical and social mapping work under the auspices of his Department of Petroleum and Energy. It is not clear at this stage when the work will be completed and whether it will be carried out to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

Strictly speaking, LNG exports from PNG should not start until all this work had been completed. But since it has been left so late in the day, it is unlikely that progress on the near-completed LNG operation is going to be halted after a commitment of some $US19 billion.

Duma has not publicly explained why he has not endorsed the earlier ExxonMobil social mapping work, or why he has waited until the 11th hour to begin "urgent" investigations into the matter.

Nevertheless, he has since told the PNG Parliament that a review of the Kutubu, Gobe and Moran oil projects in Southern Highlands has never been conducted and that he was in no position to start one now because the government had not provided funding for such an exercise.

Duma also said the Southern Highlands Provincial Government had not received any benefit since the start of oil production in 1992 which appears totally inexplicable since the current and previous Provincial Governments have not complained about this.

It is clear though from National Government budgetary papers that Southern Highlands province has one of the largest provincial budgets in the country because of royalty and dividend flows from oil production.

The entire issue appears likely to remain somewhat of a dilemma since answers are not likely to be forthcoming from the Petroleum Ministry and neither is anyone else about to bring the Ministry and Department to account. It is also part of the reason why real development in PNG remains elusive despite the semblance of prosperity in so many spheres.