‘S’wak has licensing rights over its oil, gas’
We have the licensing rights and Petronas is the development part.
KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg reiterated in London on Tuesday that Sarawak is constitutionally entitled to licensing rights over its oil and gas resources.
Even the authorities in Putrajaya had acknowledged Sarawak’s rightful position, he said in his address to Sarawakians residing and studying in UK during an evening gathering organised by Sarawak Foundation at the Sarawak Foundation House in Bondesbury Park, London.
“We have the licensing rights and Petronas is the development part,” he pointed out, referring to specific provisions in the Federal Constitution.
In consequence, he said the Sarawak government through its oil and gas company Petros had been collaborating with its federal counterpart Petronas to ensure that Sarawak would stand to benefit from its oil and gas resources.
Abang Johari said although the licensing rights had never been enforced in the last 40 years due to some possible oversight, Sarawak would not compromise on what were lawfully Sarawak’s.
The chief minister and members of his delegation were in the British capital as part of a fortnight-long study trip to UK, USA and Canada before the final stop in Dubai to meet potential investors.
On the relationship between Sarawak and the new federal government, he considered it as close as both were working for the interest of the people.
On the evening’s event, he expressed his happiness that he was able to meet some of Sarawak students in UK whom he described as the faces of future Sarawak in the quest towards digitalisation of its economy.
The students who later had an informal interaction with the chief minister showed deep interest in the approach taken by Sarawak to transform its economy from conventional to digital economy.
Abang Johari told the audience that on this first leg of the tour he visited University of London and University of Oxford to study possibilities of collaborations that would pave the way for Sarawak students to be given places in these universities in studies including humanities.
He said in the second leg of the tour in the US he would be visiting Standford University to view research activities and facilities at the university to assess the prospect of similar collaborations with the university and other universities within the Silicon Valley.
He said Sarawak would continue to send students overseas to pursue studies, in new disciplines in particular, which were not available locally such as cybersecurity, programming and data science.
Sarawakians need to acquire new knowledge in order to be acquainted with the new ecosystem and trend of development around the world which were based on new technologies, he added.
The chief minister and members of his delegation comprising key government officials fly today to San Francisco to continue with the second leg of the study tour.
Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, Chief Minister