THE government must explain its actions to protect all national assets overseas from being seized following a dispute between the Sulu sultanate and Malaysia, Lim Lip Eng said today.

The Kepong MP said the government must also explain if there are other national assets facing immediate risk of being seized following the seizure of two Petronas subsidiaries in Azerbaijan on July 11.

“On March 1 this year, the Malaysian government was warned of the risk of our national assets being seized in 167 countries.

“What did Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his cabinet ministers do to prevent it? Who shall take responsibility for the loss and resign?

“The prime minister is duty-bound to inform us of the steps to be undertaken by the government to safeguard our other assets overseas from being seized,” said the DAP leader.

The Financial Times reported yesterday that bailiffs in Luxembourg have seized two Petronas subsidiaries in Azerbaijan as part of an ongoing dispute between heirs of the Sulu sultanate and the government of Malaysia. 

According to the report, bailiffs took over the Luxembourg-registered offices of Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus – with estimated net worth of nearly RM9 billion – as part of an ongoing dispute between the heirs and the government.

Late yesterday Petronas confirmed that 2 of its subsidiaries in Azerbaijan had been served with a “saisie-arret” on July 11 but added that it had divested assets and fully repatriated proceeds from the two Azerbaijan units.

The state-owned energy company further said that it views the actions taken against it as baseless and claimed to be working vigorously to defend its legal position on this matter.

Lim however said that the news report has put Malaysia in the spotlight again for the wrong reasons.

“We are now an international embarrassment again, after the much-publicised 1MDB financial fraud.

“I call on Prime Minister Ismail Sabri to go ‘live’ on TV to explain to the nation how our national assets under Petronas were seized in Luxembourg by the heirs of the purported Sulu sultanate.” – July 13, 2022.