Sarawak govt should immediately enforce amended OMO 1958, says Soo
KUCHING: Sarawak government should enforce the recently amended Oil Mining Ordinance ( OMO) 1958 immediately instead of waiting for another 18 months.
In making this call on Thursday, State Reform Party ( STAR) president Lina Soo said all companies that intend to operate in Sarawak must apply for licence from Sarawak government.
“We cannot give them 18 months, it’s way too long. Sarawak produces the most expensive oil in the world which comes from the West Lutong oilfield in Sarawak,” she said at a press conference at a hotel here.
With the OMO, Soo said Sarawak government reserved the right to take back 100 per cent of its petroleum resources and regulatory rights within its territory.
She said to accept any royalty payment in whatever form of percentage would be tantamount to reversing the Sarawak government’s stand in enforcing OMO.
Soo added that it would also be destroying Sarawak’s 100 per cent ownership status too.
Citing a recent report by Petronas, she said Sarawak produced 850,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
“At US$ 70 per barrel, this amounts to US$ 56 million per day which adds up to US$ 20.4 billion a year.
“Imagine if this is shared amongst Sarawak’s population of 2.8 million, Sarawak will be another Norway or Qatar in terms of income per capita,” asserted Soo.
As such, she suggested that Sarawak government, as the landowner, offers Petronas a percentage to pay on every barrel of oil extracted out of Sarawak’s territory.
“It is only proper that the landowner makes the offer to the excavator, and not the reverse. So it is up to us to tell the excavator how much you can get.”
More importantly, she said Sarawakians must remain united to support and share a common aspiration for the cognisance of 100 per cent ownership of Sarawak’s oil and gas to uplift the state’s economy.
“I call upon Sarawakians to go public to denounce ( Minister of Economic Affairs Datuk Seri Mohamed) Azmin Ali on his admission that Sarawak oil needs to be based on profit rather than production to avert an adverse financial impact on both Petronas and the federal government,” she added.
According to Soo, Petronas’ role in Sarawak’s petroleum industry is no longer ‘business as usual’.
“It is the exclusive right of Sarawak to issue oil and gas prospecting licences and leases such as Profit Sharing Contract ( PSC), Risk Sharing Contract ( RSC) and Enhancement Oil Recovery ( EOR) under the Ninth Schedule Legislative List II - State List 2 (c),” she said.
She added that aligned to Sarawak’s municipal laws included Order in Council 1954, Land Code 1958, Supplementary Deed 1965, Gas Distribution Ordinance 2016 and OMO.