Adenan seeks meeting with PM to discuss oil royalty increase
Published on: Saturday, April 25, 2015
Kuching: Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem expressed hope Friday to personally meet with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to discuss the State's request for an increase in oil and gas royalties from the present 5 per cent to 20 per cent"At this stage, there is little progress made on our negotiation with Petronas to increase the royalties," he said at the handing over of Outstanding Petronas Vendors Awards here."I hope to meet the Prime Minister before the end of the year to discuss our request," Adenan said, adding that he will pursue the request until it is met.ADVERTISEMENT He said negotiation between the State government and Petronas started after the Sarawak Legislative Assembly passed a resolution demanding for the increase in May last year.Adenan, who is also the Minister of Resource Management and Environment as well as State Finance Minister, said despite the little progress made in meeting the request, the State government and Petronas have agreed to work on five areas of cooperation to address the royalty issue and to enable bigger Sarawak participation in the oil and gas industry.He said these include natural gas supply to generate power in Sarawak as well as the State government's equal participation in the oil and gas industry. The other areas are human resource, education and technical training, contracts and business opportunities and corporate social responsibility. Adenan said he told Petronas that Sarawak does not want to be a spectator anymore, but an active participant in the oil and gas industry.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"This is especially so when the oil and gas is found in our territorial waters," he said, adding that he is glad that Petronas is subscribing to the state government's policy. ADVERTISEMENT He is also glad that Petronas has agreed to award projects worth RM2.1 billion over a period of five years to Sarawak contractors.