Idris wants Petronas to bare all records on petroleum extracted in S’wak

KUCHING: Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) information chief Dato Idris Buang wants a review on all the records of oil and gas mining done in Sarawak, particularly its total output, in the state's effort to claim back what is reasonably Sarawak's.

In this regard, the Sarawak government needs to ask for the account of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), said the Muara Tuang assemblyman when reacting to Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government reneging on its election manifesto by giving out only 20 per cent of profit from oil and gas extracted in Sarawak instead of the 20 per cent royalty on their production.

"We need to ask for their accounts since the day they started extracting our resources. We have the right to audit and the right of tracing all the accounts on production output. This is an equitable right and legal right as owner of our soil, our land and the resources that are embedded with it," he said.

"Let's see how much they owe us. I believe it would be in several trillions of Malaysian Ringgit," he said.

"What Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad and his PH government are doing now to Sarawak (giving royalty based on 20 per cent of Petronas' profit) is not proper and is still not constitutional," Idris added.

"We need to review and seek a proper legal declaration of our rights. Sarawak should levy the rate of royalty by way of output at ex-rigs or ex-fields, like we do for every unit of water used at the hydrodams like the ones at Batang Ai and Murum, pay the Sarawak government royalties at one sen per unit (kwh generated)," he said.

"Petronas should pay royalty at RM x rate per barrel or gas at RM x per thermal unit. This is what royalty is supposed to be," he stressed.

He emphasised that the PH government and Petronas could not simply tell Sarawak government what it should be getting without its terms at all.

"As the absolute owner of our resources we should be the one imposing the rate of royalty and terms of licences that they must have before doing the oil and gas businesses on our territory. Over and above all these (royalty, tax, levies and surcharges) which the state may impose, the state may own part of the equity of the licensee company which is totally a different issue if the state decides to participate in equity."

He pointed out that royalty and equity participation are two separate things - royalty comes with the absolute right to impose terms while equity participation is optional.

"How we want to fix the rate of royalty may depend - but not necessarily - on how much equity we want to participate - this is a point for negotiation. We need to be advised by our own experts not theirs (PH and Petronas) as to how much we want to stomach the risks of the business," Idris asserted.