‘Confidentiality clause forbids govt revealing CSA terms’
The Commercial Settlement Agreement (CSA) between the Sarawak government and Petronas contains a binding confidentiality clause which forbids the state revealing its terms, said Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali.
The Deputy Minister in the Premier of Sarawak’s Department (Law, MA63, State-Federal Relations) said the CSA’s principal objective was to enable the state to increase its revenues from oil and gas found and produced within the state, as well as greater participation of the state and Sarawak companies in the oil and gas industry, both at upstream and downstream levels to secure adequate gas supply to support the state’s Gas Masterplan.
During the question and answer session during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting yesterday, she said these objectives are to be realised through a Consultative Framework comprising highlevel representatives from the state government, Petronas, and Petroleum Sarawak (Petros).
“After the CSA was signed, the state government has taken control of all oil and mining activities in the Onshore Areas of Sarawak and issued Mining Leases and Oil Exploration Licenses to Petros,” she said.
Sharifah Hasidah said this when answering See Chee How’s (Ind-Batu Lintang) question for the Premier to reveal the terms of the CSA signed between the state government and Petronas on Dec 7, 2020, and to explicate how it has and will benefit Sarawak.
She said Petros has been allowed to acquire equity interests in a number of offshore areas under Petroleum Sharing Contracts, while new exploration areas that ‘carried interests’ are open to Petros.
“These opportunities were not available to Sarawak and Petros before the CSA was signed,” she pointed out.
She also said that a memorandum of understanding has also been signed between Petros and Petronas, whereby the latter would make available to the state 1,200 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas by 2030 to support domestic industries, both in the power and non-power sectors.
Sharifah Hasidah added that Petros has become the aggregator of gas supplied to industries in Miri and Bintulu and is working towards becoming the sole distributor of liquefied petroleum gas in the state.