Regent Of Kelantan To Support Government To Ask Petronas Oil Royalties
Oct/21/2009 | Under Crude Oil - Oil and Gas Drilling - Petroleum
The Regent of Kelantan, Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra Sultan Ismail Petra supports the state government’s efforts to ask for petroleum royalty as per the agreement between the state and Petronas in 1975.
He said based on the data from the Statistics Department released from the the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department, Kelantan’s contribution to national petroleum production from 2005 till 2008 was larger than that of Sabah.
“Production was 5.4 per cent a year and according to the facts petroleum production from Kelantan waters started since 2005.
“The state government must continue efforts to get the royalty as per the agreement between the state government and Petronas,” he said when officiating at the opening ceremony for the third budget session of the second term of the state assembly here Tuesday.
Tengku Muhammad Faris was however confident that given principles and spirit Petronas will honour the agreement that requires cash payment be made twice yearly.
He said the royalty payments, be they for arrears or current payments, would elevate Kelantan’s income and in that regard the state government was advised to spend the royalty payments as soon as possible.
“I am given to understand that oil and gas production for several areas like the joint development area (JDA) and commercial area agreement (CAA) and other platforms are in this state.
“I also hope that Petronas and the federal government can think of locating platform repair and other needs and ship maintenance in Kelantan as we are the nearest,” Tengku Muhammad Faris said.
He said if development activities related to petroleum production was expanded they would surely contribute to reviving the country’s economy and attract foreign investment to the nation.
The royalty issue surfaced when Kelantan asked RM1 billion from the federal government on the basis that petroleum platforms were sited in Kelantan waters.
The federal government however was studying Kelantan’s claims and was at a stage to determine if Kelantan was entitled to the claims.