Shafie (third left) presenting a certificate to Dinna Salim, the best Industrial Instrumentation and Control student from Kimanis Petroleum Training Centre at the Petronas Education Sponsorship Award 2019 ceremony.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah and Petronas will continue to cooperate in oil well exploration and expanding the oil and gas (O&G) upstream and downstream industry, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
“What is important to us is not only that this wealth can be obtained by Petronas, our country, but also our state Sabah will more or less get the remuneration later. We will give the best possible cooperation,” he said after officiating the Petronas Education Sponsorship Award 2019 ceremony at Marriott Hotel here yesterday.
“There is indeed but we are aware and know that exploration is very costly. For example, from an angle of excavation, it is not an easy job and would need a huge capital,” he said when asked to elaborate by the media on discoveries of new oil wells in Sabah.
On the call for Petronas to help Sabah O&G contractors grow, Shafie said he had already spoken to the Petronas president and chairman on the matter.
“There are Sabahans that have gotten the space and opportunity … I still remember under the previous leadership, we do indeed have the space and opportunity that has been given. Just our abilities must be increased,” he said.
UPKO Youth chief Felix Saang last month said that Sabahan oil and gas players are new in the industry compared to their counterparts in the peninsula and Sarawak, thus needing priority until they grow ‘big’ enough to compete on a level playing field.
He urged Petronas to help Sabah O&G contractors to grow as they are newcomers, thus unable to compete with other more established companies from Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak.