23rd July, 2010

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah should utilize the natural gas to be sourced from the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) project in Kimanis to develop its own high revenue oil and gas industry, said Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah.

Tan (left) visiting one of the exhibition booths at the Sabah Trade Centre

Tan said he had forwarded a proposal to Petronas to have some of the gas from the SOGT to be given to Sabah to attract investors to come in and tap the resource to set up their operations in the State.

“If gas is available, industry players will be coming in to set up their activities here. People who are using gas will come in and other players will come in too to provide the support facilities and services, people like the suppliers.

“This is what we are hoping to do and we will continue to generate interest in this field by telling investors and industry players what are the opportunities available here,” he told reporters after visiting Sabah’s first Asean Oil and Gas Expo (AGEX) at Sabah Trade Centre here yesterday.

The three-day event, which ends on Saturday, features a wide array of international exhibitors including those from Malaysia, Singapore, UK, US, China, Korea, Italy, Germany, Taiwan and Japan.

Tan stressed Sabah would not need to send all its gas to Bintulu provided it can develop industrial activities to utilize the highly priced natural resource.

Although the pipes were already being built to send gas to Bintulu as planned, he said the gas can be made available for Sabah so it can attract investors to come in.

“But we have to do something to allow the industry to be developed, otherwise that will be all we do, sending our gas to Bintulu and receiving royalty.

“It would be much better for us (to have our own oil and gas industry) than to just send the gas to Bintulu. That is why there is an urgency to have industrial activities started in Sabah to tap the gas from SOGT,” he said, noting that works to set up the Terminal in Kimanis were progressing well.

According to Tan, Petronas has been very supportive of Sabah’s effort to develop its own vibrant oil and gas industry and has agreed to find a workable solution to allow Sabah to keep some of its own gas.

“We want oil and gas to create economic activities in Sabah, in line with efforts to generate downstream activities and create high income community.

“It is not just the landing of gas in Sabah but also the planning of oil and gas activities in the State and this includes efforts to provide the infrastructure and human resources required,” said Tan.

He said Petronas was willing to assist Sabah in developing trained and skilled human resources for its oil and gas industry through various levels of training programmes.

He added the company was willing to invest further in Sabah’s human resources development and the CEO himself has asked him to discuss the matter with the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman.

On AGEX, he said the event was timely as it brought major names in oil and gas sector into Sabah where investment opportunities can be highlighted or even discovered.

Currently the biggest oil and gas exhibition in Borneo, the event is expected to receive at least 5,000 visitors and generate sales of up to RM100 million.

“The organizer is very brave as a project of this nature is never a small undertaking and it is very significant as Sabah needs to know and bring in the players in the industry.

The exhibitors here are well known brands in oil and gas, with most of them suppliers and partners of Petronas.

“We will continue to organize this kind of activity to create awareness on the opportunities available in oil and gas Sabah,” he said.

(Source: New Sabah Times)