Speaking to FMT, Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking said while Petronas was entitled to legal recourse, he believed the issue at hand was the injustice suffered by Sabah and Sarawak which had been deprived for decades of what was rightfully theirs.
“Our oil and gas resources haven’t benefitted us directly. Instead, we have been indoctrinated into accepting that we should be happy with whatever meagre returns in the form of cash payments which have been given to Sabah to date,” said the Penampang MP.
He said his question at the last Dewan Rakyat sitting revealed that Sabah had only received around RM7.4 billion between 2010 and 2017 as the 5% cash payment whereas, in the same period, Sarawak received RM15.4 billion.
“There is indeed a need to open up the books with Petronas and how they managed Sabah’s oil and gas output when compared to Sarawak.
“As we move towards a progressive Sabah, we should be more aggressive in reinstating our rights to our oil and gas resources, and these resources should be managed under the direction of the Sabah government.”
Leiking said any review of the rights of the state should be about how Sabahans and Sarawakians should manage their own oil and gas resources.
Yesterday, it was reported that national oil company Petronas had filed for a court application to declare its exclusive ownership of the country’s petroleum resources.
This was after the Sarawak government took a more active interest in local resources in recent years.
In March, the Sarawak government asserted its rights in relation to petroleum resources and was supposed to assume full regulatory authority on upstream and downstream activities in July.
The state government had formed its own local oil and gas company, Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros), for this purpose.
The oil and gas rights of Sabah and Sarawak have been a key issue for politicians on both sides of the divide, especially in recent years. There have been increasing calls for the two states to enjoy greater rights over their petroleum resources in line with the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
Petronas seeks court declaration on ownership of petroleum resources