PDA 1974 unconstitutional – Patriot association president

KUCHING: The Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA 1974) is unconstitutional as it was never approved by the State Legislative Assembly, opined Sarawak Patriot Association president Datuk Dr Lau Pang Heng.

“The PDA 1974 and Article 13 of the Federal Constitution on compulsory acquisition of oil and gas with reasonable compensation, which were not approved by the state assembly, cannot be applicable to Sarawak and Sabah, except to the individual states of Peninsular Malaysia,” said Lau.

He also reminded that the state has Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 to regulate oil and gas upstream mining operations in Sarawak.

“Anyone who wishes to mine or explore oil and gas within the land in Sarawak, they must pay royalty for the lease, pay annual rental prescribed fee and licence fees, including state sales tax,” said Lau.

Lau also mentioned that the daily production of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) was 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent while the national oil reserve stood at 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

“Looking at Sarawak, we have over 280 oilfields and oil reserves equivalent of 1.290 billion barrels, while gas reserves is about 44,692 trillion standard cubic feet,” he said, pointing out the state’s oil production was 173.35 thousand barrels a day and for gas production it was 4,125.70 million standard cubic feet daily.

He made these comments at the Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) seminar on Malaysia Agreement 1963, PDA 1974 and Native Customary Rights land at a restaurant in Crown Square here yesterday.

Lau remarked that over RM76.6 billion worth of oil and gas was produced in the state per year but the state only received RM3.8 billion in return.

Nonetheless, Lau personally felt that the state government should take the matter surrounding PDA 1974 to court.

“We can go to court over the Petroleum Development Act 1974. I believe the chances of winning are good as it was not approved by the State Legislative Assembly,” said Lau.