Soo doesn’t agree with See’s suggestion to acquire stake in gas block
KUCHING: State Reform Party Sarawak ( STAR) finds it preposterous that Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How would call upon the state government to negotiate with Petronas to purchase a 49 per cent stake in the SK316 offshore gas block in Sarawak.
Its president Lina Soo said the state PKR vice- chairman’s suggestion to “hand over more money to Petronas for what belongs to Sarawak is unacceptable and ludicrous.”
“( If the state government does so) why does the federal government have to pay oil royalty to Sarawak? Is it not in cognisance of the fact that Sarawak has ownership and rights over its oil and gas resources?” she asked in her statement yesterday.
See on Wednesday had urged Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg and his state administration to seriously consider taking up the 49 per cent stake in the SK316 offshore gas block which Petronas was planning to sell.
According to him, it was recently reported in a national daily that Petronas wanted to sell a large stake in this prized upstream gas project to raise cash and cut development costs and the stake may include a combination of the producing NC3 gas field in SK316 block, the potential development of the Kasawari field in the same block and other exploration acreage in Block SK316.
Soo opined that payment of royalty suggested that Petronas only has a licence to extract the state’s oil and gas, and the licence can be withdrawn at any time.
“The state government can also exercise its powers to refuse to consent to any proposal by Petronas to sell or part with any of its equity and assets to any third party and also to stop Petronas operations in Sarawak’s boundaries and territorial waters within the Exclusive Economic Zone, if need be.”
She also claimed that the federal government had acted in impropriety, in breach of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 ( MA63), by taking over Sarawak’s petroleum resources in 1974 under a decree called the Petroleum Development Act.
“As a consequence, the Act had robbed Sarawak of its oil and gas revenue, resulting in a wretched situation where Sarawak has been impoverished by the federal government draining our oil wealth to develop Malaya at our expense.
“Thus, it doesn’t make sense for Sarawak politicians to offer to enrich the federal government further as what See has proposed, and by talking as if the oil and gas belongs absolutely to the federal government,” she stressed.
Soo added that if Abang Johari was determined to safeguard the rights and interests of Sarawak, the state government must take steps to exercise its rights and powers under MA63 to take back control of its resources including oil and gas.