THE principal objectives of the Commercial Settlement Agreement (CSA) between the state government and Petroliam Nasional Berhad enabled the state to increase its revenue from oil and gas found and produced within Sarawak.
Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Law, MA63, State-Federal Relations) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali stated that it also enabled greater participation of the state and Sarawak companies in the oil and gas industry both at upstream and downstream levels to secure adequate gas supply to support the Sarawak Gas Masterplan.
She added that these objectives were to be realised through a Consultative Framework comprising of 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.
“Petros 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’ are open to Petros. These opportunities were not available to Sarawak and Petros before the CSA was signed.”
She said this in response to a question from Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How during the third day of the 19th Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Wednesday (Nov 23).
Sharifah Hasidah stated that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had also been signed between Petros and Petronas whereby the latter would make available to the state 1,200 mmscfd (million standard cubic feet per day) of natural gas by 2030 to support domestic industries both in the power and non-power sectors.
“Meanwhile, Petros has become the aggregator of gas supplied to industries in Miri and Bintulu. Petros is working towards becoming the sole distributor of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in the state,” she added.
