A scientist working for ExxonMobil in Papua New Guinea was held hostage last week by armed tribesmen in Hela Province who wanted police to release a local warlord.

The men, who were carrying home-made firearms, abducted the woman from the vicinity of the Komo airfield on Friday as they were on their way to the Tari police station to demand the release of their kinsman.

Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades

The police commander for Hela province Michael Welly said the woman was held for two hours at the most before being released.

"The hostage takers went into the camp, got this female employee and held her hostage and demanded that police release the suspect so my men had to give in to their demand and release the suspect who initially had the home-made firearm on him," said Superintendent Welly.

"We know those suspects involved in the hostage situation. We know their identity. We will have them arrested soon."

Superintendent Welly confirmed that the woman, an employee of ExxonMobil, is an environmental scientist with the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project and that she was from coastal PNG.

Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades

Exxonmobil praised the police handling of the incident.

"Exxonmobil is taking very seriously the abduction of one member of its staff in the vicinity of Komo airfield on Friday," said an ExxonMobil spokesperson.

"We are relieved to say that the incident was resolved quickly and that all our staff are safe."

The company said the issue was not directly related to PNG LNG activities.

"We continue to encourage constructive dialogue as the means to resolving tensions.

"ExxonMobil PNG is committed to maintaining a positive relationship with landowners, the government and the wider community," said the company spokesperson.

Photo: PNG EMTV online

Michael Welly said it was an isolated incident and not related to the upcoming national elections, which have prompted a beefing up of security in the province in recent months.

He said there were strategies in place to deal with aniticipated security issues in Hela during and after polling which starts on 24 June and is scheduled to run over two weeks.

"I am hoping that the response unit that is going to be deployed into Hela province is done soon enough so that I can strategically locate them in the hot spot areas that I think we need to maintain for the smooth running of the elections," said Michael Welly.

Mr Welly said the response unit had been gearing up in Mt Hagen over the weekend in preparation for deployment from Tari.

He said he was hoping to get two police mobile squads and two platoons of defence force personnel for the election period.