SARAWAK Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg has refuted a report that the state has returned to Petronas the authority to issue oil and gas prospecting licences.

“No, no. We haven’t given up,” Abang Johari said in response to a report by the Malaysian Reserve that Sarawak had agreed to allow oil firms “to operate as Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas)-licenced companies in Sarawak as long as they comply with the state’s new requirements”. 

The report said the new arrangement, to take effect on January 1, is to maintain the status quo whereby licensing authority remains with Petronas.

“How can we give up our constitutional right?” he said after presenting education sponsorships to 149 Sarawak students under the Petronas Education Sponsorship Programme in Kuching this afternoon.

“No. We have not given up and quote me on that correctly.”

Sarawak took back control over its petroleum resources from Petronas when it amended and enforced its 61 year-old Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 (OMO) in July last year.

The OMO extinguished Petronas’ 24-year hold on the state’s oil and gas resource under the Petroleum Development Act (PDA), 1974.

Sarawak has questioned the legality of the PDA.

The OMO not only gave the state regulatory control over exploration and mining, it forced all oil companies, including Petronas, to secure a prospecting licence from the newly formed state-owned oil and gas exploration company, Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros).

In his address earlier, the chief minister said that although Sarawak has differences with the national oil company, “we can still work together”.

He said one such area would be Sarawak’s participation in the development of new oil and gas fields.

This would see Petros participating in prospecting, taking the place of Carigali, which is Petronas’ exploration arm.

“Now we can say that it’s Petros, Petronas and the contractor,” he said, adding that negotiations were not over, but were going “quite well”. – July 5, 2019.