SARAWAK is on its way to becoming Southeast Asia’s most prominent green hydrogen producer, with projects worth an estimated USD4.2 billion (RM20.7 billion) underway.
According to Tanjong Datu assemblyman Azizul Annuar Adenan, the state government is pushing for crucial amendments to regulate hydrogen production, storage, and distribution to safeguard the hydrogen production industry.
“Sarawak is forming several partnerships for green hydrogen projects worth USD4.2 billion, including developing large-scale hydrogen plants at the Sarawak Hydrogen Hub in Bintulu and the Rembus Depot near Kuching.
“The approval of this amendment will give a better legal framework and will safeguard our rights in the production, storage, distribution, and the utilisation of our new commodity,” Azizul said when debating on the Distribution of Gas (Amendment) Bill, 2024 during the second meeting of the third session of the 19th Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting, Monday (Nov 11).
Azizul added that there must be specific rules and regulations to address the production of hydrogen and its supply or value chain in Sarawak.
“We could start with a four-step process beginning with the certification, such as the carbon footprint certification, project certification and green electricity traceability.
“Then, we can move on to design and permitting, which includes site assessments, environmental impact assessments and risk assessments.
“The third step will involve procurement to access a global and reliable supply chain which includes transportation, loading and unloading of hydrogen in either gas or liquid form and lately, the construction phase to run the project safely on time,” he suggested.
Azizul said the last phase would involve quality assurance and quality control, safety supervision, commissioning and test run supervision.
“After these four processes have been done, we then can focus on the asset operations and its management,” he concluded.
