CALLING on Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) to respect Sarawak’s laws is neither a threat nor an act of blackmail.
In stating this, Minister of Utility and Telecommunication Datuk Seri Julaihi Narawi said instead, it is a legitimate demand grounded in legal rights.
“I would like to refer to the remarks made by the member for Stakan who said that Petronas should follow our state laws and is not above the law.
“The comments echo the frustrations of Sarawakians over Petronas’ management of our natural gas resources.
“These frustrations stem from its failure to provide sufficient gas to support Sarawak’s industrial growth and attract potential investors,” he said in his ministerial winding-up speech on Monday (Nov 18).
He then said Sarawak accounts for over 60 per cent of the natural gas produced in Malaysia, but of this volume, 94 per cent is used by Petronas to convert into Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for export to Korea and Japan to support industries in these countries.
“However, all the gas produced offshore Peninsular Malaysia is retained for use in the states of Malaya, to support industries and sold for power generation by independent power producers at subsidised rates,” he said.
In stark contrast, he said only 6 per cent of Sarawak’s natural gas is allocated for local industries and power generation, with prices dictated by Petronas.
“Foreign investors who wish to set up industries in Sarawak were repeatedly told that there is no gas available for them. Consequentially, these investors chose other destinations for their investments, depriving Sarawak of crucial economic opportunities.
“Petronas’ small gas allocation for use in Sarawak does not support industrial development in Sarawak,” he said.
Julaihi said to address this imbalance and to ensure adequate supply of gas for local industries and for the state’s energy transition programme, the state government has developed a Sarawak Gas Road Map and appointed Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) as gas aggregator to procure, allocate and distribute gas to ensure that there would be adequate supply of gas for use by industries in Sarawak.
“At the request of the Sarawak government, Petronas has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Petros to use its best endeavour to allocate 1.2 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscf/d) by 2030 to support the Sarawak Gas Road Map.
“However, until today Petronas has yet to identify where the allocated volume of gas would be sourced and when the gas fields would be developed,” he said.
He said Sarawak was calling for the development of more gas fields to produce more gas to support the Sarawak Road Map and to boost industrial development.
“In this respect, more gas distribution network, infrastructure and pipelines are needed to be built or installed.
“Since the 1980s, Petronas had not invested in gas distribution infrastructures except to supply to the LNG plants to produce LNG for exports.
“Hence, Petros had to build a pipeline from Bintulu to deliver gas to Samalaju for both power generation and to support the heavy industries there,” he said.
