THE Sarawak government has been accused of surrendering the state’s offshore oil and gas rights to Petronas through the Commercial Settlement Agreement (CSA), which it signed earlier this week.

Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo described the CSA as the “Judas kiss” while Voon Lee Shan of the pro-independent Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) said there should not be any reason for any commercial settlement agreement “since the oil and gas resources off Sarawak’s shores belong to the state”.

Voon said by agreeing to the CSA, it showed the “GPS government is validating the illegal Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA74) and the Territorial Seas Act 2012 (TSA).”

The PDA74 and the TSA are two Parliament-passed laws that Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had often and long said were “illegal” laws as they had violated the terms of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Voon said if the chief minister stands by what he had said, then “why is there a settlement if GPS government is really protecting Sarawak’s oil and gas resources?”

“Is not the chief minister playing with words to validate the PDA74 and TSA when he said these Acts are irrelevant?”

Voon also suggested the “surrender” of the state’s rights over the oil and gas deposits offshore could see Sarawak losing billions in possible revenue as he claimed there are about 200 potential oil and gas fields waiting to be explored between 5.6 and 22km off the shores of Sarawak.

Soo said what appears to be “a patriotic act of fighting for Sarawak rights” was “in reality a furtive move detrimental to the people of Sarawak”.

There were few details on the agreement except what Deputy Chief Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan disclosed in his address at the signing in Kuala Lumpur that the CSA had met “the expectations of the people of Sarawak”.

He said the aspirations of Sarawakians are for the state government to:-

* have a greater degree of involvement in the management of oil and gas resources on both onshore and offshore areas

* enjoy a more equitable share of the revenues from these resources

* be accorded with greater investment opportunities for the state in both the upstream and downstream sectors

* secure availability of natural gas produced in the state at fair prices to boost its industrial development agenda

* for Petronas to continue and expand its current vendor development programmes as well as to provide more opportunities for Sarawak companies to participate in the oil and gas sectors such as in the award of contracts for supply and services works. – December 12, 2020.