PETRONAS and representatives from relevant government agencies and local authorities have begun investigating the cause of Wednesday’s gas leak on its Sabah-Sarawak Gas Pipeline (SSGP), the company said today.

While the national petroleum company was mum on the cause of the leak, Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said the initial report he received indicated there was a rupture on the pipeline caused by “shifting earth”.

“Earth movement may have caused the pipeline to bend and break,” he told The Malaysian Insight after attending the BN state supreme council meeting in Petra Jaya today.

Photos provided by the Fire and Rescue Service Department showed a broken pipe protruding from the ground where a small landslide had occurred.

Lawas is Sarawak’s northernmost district next to Sabah and it has been lashed by heavy monsoon rain the past two months.

Awang Tengah, who is also second minister of urban development and natural resources, said he will ask Petronas for a detailed briefing on the incident soon.

He said there was no evacuation ordered as the leak, which was detected at about 1.45am, was some 2km from the nearest settlement.

In a statement, Petronas said the location of the leak was at KP181.9 of the SSGP near Long Luping.

Long Luping is more than 80km from Lawas town.

“We will commence restoration efforts in due course.

“All necessary measures were undertaken in collaboration with the relevant government agencies, local authorities and local communities to ensure the safety of the surrounding communities at all times,” the company said.

In June 2014, a similar leak at Bukit Beriwen, about 20km from Lawas town, erupted into a fireball and the explosion could be heard in the Brunei district of Temburong and as far as the coastal town of Sipitang in Sabah.

The 512km pipeline was completed in 2014 to transport up to 600 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal in Kimanis to the Petronas LNG complex in Tanjung Kidurong, Bintulu for liquefaction.

442km of the pipeline runs in Sarawak. – January 12, 2018.