Sabah always firm in its gas and oil rights claim - Masidi

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government will always be firm in its claim for oil and gas-related rights for the benefit of its people, the Sabah State Legislative Assembly was told today.

State Finance Minister II Datuk Masidi Manjun said he would not be lenient in safeguarding Sabah's interests to ensure that the state was entitled to benefit from its gas and oil industry.

"About gas, don't worry. I will leave the meeting room (during negotiations) if I am not satisfied because what is important is Sabah's rights," said Masidi who is also the Sabah government's negotiator on the oil and gas industry with the federal government and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas).

Masidi said this in his reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (Warisan-Senallang) at the Sabah state assembly sitting today.

Mohd Shafie wanted to know how serious the Sabah government was in protecting its oil and gas rights and what efforts were made to ensure that the state's oil and gas rights could be restored as demanded through negotiations with Petronas.

Masidi said the Sabah government's determination in its claims could be proven through Petronas' agreement to develop a floating near-shore liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility at the Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park (SOGIP), near Sipitang, to be implemented in a year or two.

"Petronas has agreed to set up a floating (LNG) facility at SOGIP to process gas. All plans have been briefed to the state government. It is time we demand our rights, provided we must supply the expertise," he said.

Meanwhile, Masidi said the commercial collaboration agreement (CCA) with Petronas signed on Dec 7 last year, among others, ensured Sabah achieved greater revenue sharing, participation and control in the oil and gas industry commercially, besides Sabah being able to retain its legal rights.

Also through the CCA, he said, Sabah was given ample opportunities in the oil and gas industry through upstream, downstream and LNG activities, and the scenario showed that local government-owned companies involved in the oil and gas industry were given the opportunity to participate in all three activities.

"The state government through its state government subsidiaries is also given the opportunity to participate in a higher percentage of shareholding to ensure that the profits of the oil and gas industry can provide opportunities or high revenue to the state government.

"This can then be enjoyed by the people through state development planning that will boost the economic activities," he said in his reply to a question posed by Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi (Bebas-Segama) who wanted to know the benefits to the people, as well as the state and more information on CCA, inked between Sabah and Petronas.

Masidi said Petronas would continue to be committed to cash payments of oil royalties and state sales tax as part of securing greater revenue sharing in the oil and gas industry.

"This agreement also gives the state government the rights in the oil and gas industry to facilitate commercial cooperation with state government subsidiaries.

"Based on the summary of the essence of the agreement, it can be concluded that the state government benefits from the opportunity to participate in more oil and gas activities in the state," he said.

-- BERNAMA