KUCHING: The Commercial Settlement Agreement (CSA) signed between the state government and Petroliam Nasional Berhad enables Sarawak to increase its revenue from oil and gas produced in Sarawak.
Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Law, MA63, State-Federal Relations) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said it also allowed Sarawak and the local companies to have greater participation in the oil and gas industry; both at upstream and downstream activities as well as to secure adequate gas supply to support the Sarawak Gas Masterplan.
She said the principal objectives of the CSA would be realized through a Consultative Framework comprising high-level representatives from the state government, PETRONAS and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (PETROS).
“The CSA contains a binding confidentiality clause which forbids the state government revealing the terms thereof.
“However, after the CSA was signed, the state government has taken control of all oil mining activities in the onshore areas of Sarawak and issued mining leases and oil exploration licences to PETROS,” she said,
PETROS, she said, has been allowed to acquire equity interests in a number of offshore areas under Petroleum Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and for new exploration areas ‘carried interests’ were opened to PETROS.
“All these opportunities were not available to Sarawak and PETROS before the CSA was signed,” she said.
Sharifah Hasidah was responding to a question from Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How during the third day of the 19th State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here today.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU), she said, has also been signed between PETROS and PETRONAS whereby the latter would make available to the state 1200 mmscfd of natural gas by 2030 to support domestic industries both in the power and non-power sectors.
She PETROS has become the aggregator of gas supplied to industries in Miri and Bintulu; and the company is working towards becoming the sole distributor of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in the state.
