This comes after the meeting between Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the chief ministers of Sabah and Sarawak on Monday.

A statement by the Sarawak chief minister’s office said Mahathir had invited the two East Malaysian states to explore the idea of owning stakes in Petronas.

“It was expressed to the prime minister that Sarawak has to study the proposal in-depth,” the statement added.

It said Sarawak was strengthening its state oil company Petros’ participation in both the upstream and downstream activities of the oil and gas industry in Sarawak.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had earlier said Sarawak had no intention to accept Putrajaya’s offer to buy a stake in the national oil company.

He said it would be pointless for Sarawak to buy a stake in Petronas as the state government would not have a say in how the company should be managed.

Putrajaya’s offer to sell Petronas stakes to Sabah and Sarawak has come under criticism from leaders in both states, with Sarawak’s state tourism minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah describing the offer an “insult” to East Malaysians.

“Why would Sarawak purchase a stake in a company that has become rich with the resources it extracted from the state?” Karim had questioned.