Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg has assured Sarawakians he will give them a report on the long drawn-out oil and gas royalty negotiations with Petronas within the next three months.

He said despite recent criticisms on some decisions he took on the matter, the position of the state on the royalty percentage was unchanged.

“I am still asking for 20%,” he said in a media conference to mark his 100th day in office as chief minister in Kuching today.

Currently, Sarawak and Sabah – the country’s two biggest oil and gas producing states – are receiving a 5% royalty on their fast depleting resources.

“But since Petronas said it could not give the 20% now due to low world oil prices, we have demanded something else while waiting for the price to increase,” he said referring to several agreements a 100% state-owned methanol plant in Tanjung Kidurong in Bintulu has reached with Petronas.

The plant is owned by state-government linked Yayasan Hartanah Bumiputera Sarawak (YHBS).

Two memorandums of understanding (MoU) YHBS signed with Petronas earlier today were for the supply of 140 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of natural gas to the methanol plant and for the sale and purchase of methanol produced by the plant.

Petronas in a statement said the key terms of the agreement were the price, volume and period of gas to be supplied by Petronas to YHBS.

It said the agreement was a prelude to the gas sales agreement (GSA) to be signed by Petronas and YHBS at a later date.

Abang Johari’s firm demand continues what his predecessor Adenan Satem started. The demand has the full backing of state legislature.

The chief minister pointed out that the demand and the state’s plan to use billions of ringgit of its money to bankroll what should be federal financed projects, should not be interpreted as assertion of the state’s  independence.

Abang Johari said state funds would be used to improve the state’s internet infrastructure for a “3terabit internet super highway”; build rural airstrips to provide better logistics to “food basket” areas like Bukit Sadok, the Tanjung Manis halal hub and Baleh where construction of a mammoth hydroelectric dam is about to commence; and a light rail transport system to link Kuching with Kota Samarahan and Serian.

He said the state could not be too dependent on Putrajaya to speed up  development of its rural areas, a stand that was echoed by Semop assemblyman Abdullah Saidol, who said “depending too much on federal fundings will not bring the desired speed of development”. – April 22, 2017.