24 July 2010

KOTA KINABALU: The state government will consider suggestions to utilise gas to be landed at the Kimanis terminal to develop Sabah’s own oil and gas industry, said Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman.
 The Chief Minister said Sabah would discuss with Petronas the proposal for the state to use the resource instead of just sending it to Bintulu as initially planned when the company began constructing the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) off the coastal district of Kimanis.

 “We will discuss with Petronas. For us, any suggestion for the good of the state, what is good for the people, we will do it,” he told reporters when asked to comment on the matter after launching Ranhill Powertron II gas turbine generator in Sepanggar, yesterday.
 The idea was proposed on Thursday by Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah who wanted the gas from the currently being developed SOGT to be made available for Sabah.
 He said this was to encourage oil and gas investors and industry players to come to Sabah to tap the availability of the highly priced resource.
 Tan also stressed that Sabah would not need to send all its gas to Bintulu and that the oil and gas activities would create numerous economic opportunities and spin-offs and help the locals to improve their livelihood.
 According to Tan, he had forwarded the idea to Petronas and the national oil company has been very supportive and assured they would look into workable solutions to allow Sabah to keep some of its natural gas.
 Speaking at the launch of Powertron earlier, The Chief Minister urged Sabah electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) to double their efforts to improve the state’s electricity supply.
 “Although power outage has been successfully reduced in some areas, I would like to remind SESB to continue to work harder to ensure electricity supply in Sabah can be further improved in future,” he said.
 SESB personnel at all levels, he said, must take this challenge and fulfil their responsibility to the best they could so as to guarantee a stable and reliable electricity supply that could be enjoyed by everyone in Sabah.
 He also attributed the frequent power outage in the state to the lack of stable and reliable generating capacity, especially in the east coast where there in no major power plant.
 The Chief Minister said the absence of an anchor generating facility in the east coast also led to heavy dependency on east coast to provide additional power, which meant there will be power outage there whenever the east faced problems.
 The state government, he said, has continuously looked for solutions, which had been long overdue, to address the power shortage in the east coast.
 “Power shortage has been a constant problem in Sabah and it should have been overcome long ago by setting up more power plants and reliable electricity generation system.
 “It is not impossible to completely overcome the problem, but it may take some time, depending on available options as well as the cost and application of available technology,” he said.
 In this regard, Musa said the state government would continue to world closely with the federal government, and at the same time be ready to provide any necessary assistance to SESB to address the issues they faced in providing better electricity services, including the issue of way leave approval and relocation of residents for electricity projects.
 Also present were Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin, Ranhill Berhad chairman Tan Sri Sallehuddin Mohamed, chief executive officer-cum-president Tan Sri Hamdan Mohamed.
   
 
(Source: New Sabah Times)