Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali
KUCHING: The state government has confirmed that it has been made a party in a suit brought by national oil corporation Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas).
Assistant Minister of Law, Federal-State Relation and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, who gave the confirmation, said that the State Attorney General’s Chambers had been served with a notice from the Federal Court Registry today.
“The State Attorney General’s Chambers on the 4th of June 2018 has been served with a notice from the Federal Court Registry that the State Government is being made a party in a suit by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) in the case of Petroliam Nasional Berhad vs Kerajaan Negeri Sarawak,” she said in a statement today.
Petronas, in a statement today, said it has filed an application before the Federal Court seeking for a declaration on the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA 1974) being the law applicable for the petroleum industry in Malaysia.
Petronas is seeking to clarify that under the law, it is the exclusive owner of the petroleum resources as well as the regulator for the upstream industry throughout Malaysia, including in Sarawak.
Sharifah Hasidah said the application for leave made under Article 4(4) of the Federal Constitution will be heard on Tuesday, June 12 in Putrajaya.
“At the moment, the state has yet to receive the motion filed by Petronas related to the application. The State Government will do everything within its powers, in accordance with the rule of law, to defend our rights in this matter.”
In expressing her personal view over PDA 1974 posted in her Facebook account earlier, Sharifah Hasidah opined that the Act must be reviewed and possibly amended.
“PDA 1974 is an Act of Parliament, passed with a simple majority (in Parliament in 1974) which gave exclusive rights to Petronas to explore, exploit and obtain Petroleum found onshore and offshore of our state.
“With the PDA 1974, it was agreed that Petronas would make five per cent cash payment of the value of the petroleum extracted to the state.”
She said in view that Petroleum was extracted mainly from the state’s shores, the state government felt that five per cent cash payment to the state was relatively low, and that the state should be given more.
“Now with this new government and supposedly new hope and new era, we hope that PDA 1974 will be comprehensively reviewed amended accordingly, particularly the inadequacies of the cash payments to us.
“This is because Petronas is now a global player with investments around the world. Therefore, it is only fair for Petronas to give more to states like Sarawak.”
Besides that, Sharifah Hasidah said she was sure that that all the major capital investments by Petronas on Sarawak oil and gas fields have been all but recovered for the last 40 over years and thus more net profits can be shared with Sarawak.
“Sharing is caring. For fairness sake, PDA 1974 must be reviewed and amended in the true spirit of Malaysia.”