Malaysia’s Petros and Petronas sign domestic gas agreement

Petroleum Sarawak (Petros) has signed a domestic gas agreement with Petroliam Nasional (Petronas).

With the deal, Petros has taken over the control of Petronas’s supply, sales and distribution of natural gas within the state of Sarawak.

The deal has been effective since 1 January and is expected to attract more investors into the state.

Petros is currently the single entity that supplies, sells and delivers domestic gas to residential, commercial and industrial purposes within Sarawak, reported Malay Mail.

Petronas president and CEO Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said: “Driven by this trust, Petronas is indeed proud to be a long-standing partner to Sarawak.

“Under the commercial arrangement, the sale and purchase of the gas distribution businesses and assets in Miri and Bintulu will be undertaken by Petros, which will assume the role as gas transporter and aggregator, and carried out by its subsidiary Petros Gas.”

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said that Sarawak holds 54% of the total national gas reserves and 29% of the total national oil reserves.

Awang Tengah was quoted as saying: “With the existing infrastructure facilities in Bintulu, Sarawak can take advantage of the availability of our natural gas resources as feedstock and make Bintulu a thriving and vibrant O&G hub in the region.”

Awang Tengah noted that natural gas should be used as a cleaner-burning fossil fuel to improve the efficiency of many industries.

Last month, an explosion occurred at a portion of the Sabah-Sarawak interstate gas pipeline in Sabah, Malaysia.

In April 2018, Petronas’ subsidiary Petronas LNG (PLL) transported the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Petronas LNG Complex in Sarawak to the Posco Gwangyang Terminal in South Korea.