NGOs warn banks not to further finance PNG LNG project

(Banktrack, Nijegen, 18 April 2013) A coalition of seven NGOs (BankTrack, Jubilee Australia, Pacific Environment, Act Now! PNG, Mineral Policy Institute, International Accountability Project and Friends of the Earth France) today sent a letter to seventeen banks that are already involved in the financing of the highly controversial PNG LNG project to ask them not to extend any further financing to this project. Despite a first warning letter more than three years ago, 17 banks decided to finance the PNG LNG project, the biggest project ever in the history of Papua New Guinea. Because of huge cost overruns (20% from US$14bn to US$19bn), due in part to the failure to anticipate local conflict, ExxonMobil is looking for a US$1.5bn additional debt facility to complete the project from the very same banks. The export credit agencies involved in this financing were: Export Import Bank of China, Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Australia, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, SACE S.p.A. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.