{"id":22431,"date":"2018-07-10T14:30:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T06:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/?p=22431"},"modified":"2018-07-10T17:34:21","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T09:34:21","slug":"datuk-sebastian-ting-dewan-debate-on-the-oil-mining-amendment-ordinance-bill-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/?p=22431","title":{"rendered":"Datuk Sebastian Ting Dewan debate on The Oil Mining (Amendment) Ordinance Bill, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

1.1 Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to join the other\u00a0Honourable members of the august House in debating the Oil Mining\u00a0(Amendment) Ordinance Bill, 2018. I would like to congratulate our\u00a0Sarawak Government and Deputy Chief Minister YB Datuk Amar Haji Awang\u00a0Tengah for tabling a very comprehensive Bill.<\/p>\n

2.0 THE BILL<\/p>\n

Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker.<\/p>\n

2.1 The original Oil Mining Ordinance was passed in 1958 and it is\u00a0timely for this Bill to update the Oil Mining Ordinance to have better\u00a0provisions in the law to give the power to the State the regulatory\u00a0rights over its oil and gas activities in both offshore and inshore of\u00a0Sarawak.<\/p>\n

2.2 The Oil Mining Ordinance will require the oil and gas contractors,\u00a0subcontractors and vendors operating in Sarawak territorial waters to\u00a0obtain necessary licences and approvals from the Sarawak government or\u00a0risk being deemed as illegal under the state law.<\/p>\n

2.3 The Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sarawak Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud\u00a0had reiterated yesterday that the Sarawak Government would be able to\u00a0manage its natural resources well, particularly oil and gas, to ensure\u00a0that Sarawakians could benefit from them. The establishment of PETROS\u00a0is in line with the government’s effort to manage the development of\u00a0the oil and gas industry in Sarawak.<\/p>\n

2.4 I would like to refer to Amendment of Section 3 of the Principal\u00a0Ordinance where the words “ten thousand dollars” are substituted with\u00a0the words “two hundred thousand ringgit”. This section refers to\u00a0penalty for exploration, prospection or mining for oil and gas without\u00a0receiving lawful authority, i.e. licence, to do so under the Principal\u00a0Ordinance.<\/p>\n

2.5 However, the New Section 3A is different.\u00a0New Section 3A – “Restriction against building, erecting etc. of\u00a0mining structures”<\/p>\n

3A (1) says, “No person shall build, erect, maintain or decommission\u00a0any mining structure on any land onshore or in the continental shelf\u00a0unless authorised by the terms in any license or mining lease issued\u00a0under this Ordinance or with the approval in writing of the Authority\u00a0and subject to any condition or restriction imposed in that license,\u00a0mining lease or approval granted by the Authority”.<\/p>\n

3A(2) says, “Any person who fails to comply with subsection (1) shall\u00a0be guilty of any offense and shall, upon conviction, be punished with\u00a0a fine of not exceeding two hundred thousand ringgit or imprisonment\u00a0for a term not exceeding three years or to both”.<\/p>\n

Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker.<\/p>\n

2.6 I look at the quantum of the fine of two hundred thousand ringgit\u00a0only upon conviction. I am sure that all of us know that in the oil\u00a0and gas industry, two hundred thousand ringgit is nothing compared to\u00a0millions of ringgit they can pump per day. Indeed in criminal matters\u00a0it takes a long time, a year, two or more, for a court to convict a\u00a0person for such wrong doing. While the case is on going the person\u00a0continues to pump the oil or gas, making millions of ringgit.\u00a0I would therefore like to propose an amendment to section 3A(2) to “a\u00a0fine of two hundred thousand ringgit for every day that the offence is\u00a0continued after the serving of notice to the person”.<\/p>\n

3.0 OIL AND GAS REVENUES<\/p>\n

Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker.<\/p>\n

3.1 I would like to touch on the oil and gas revenues. The oil and gas\u00a0resources found within Sarawak’s Territorial Waters belong to Sarawak\u00a0and Sarawakians as a whole. It is our inalienable Rights over our\u00a0natural resources and therefore we must safeguard our own resources.\u00a0Since the discovery of oil in Miri in 1910, we have been receiving oil\u00a0royalty from SHELL annually and this continues on even after the\u00a0Malaysia Day. Though the Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 was passed before\u00a0the Malaysia Day, it is still a good law and only applicable in\u00a0Sarawak thanks to the protection given in Section 73 of the Malaysia\u00a0Agreement.<\/p>\n

3.2 On the 4th June 2018 (just 26 days after the PRU14), Sarawakians\u00a0woke to find out that PETRONAS had filed an application for leave to\u00a0commence proceeding over ownership right to Sarawak’s oil and gas\u00a0resources. It was originally scheduled to be heard by the Federal\u00a0Court on the 12 June 2018 but subsequently postponed to 21 June 2018.\u00a0On the 22 June 2018, the Federal Court delivered its judgement and\u00a0dismissed the PETRONAS application for leave.<\/p>\n

3.3 The people of Sarawak were very concerned with this PETRONAS’s\u00a0suit against the Sarawak Government and were fully behind our\u00a0government. Indeed they were very happy when the Federal Court refused\u00a0to grant leave to PETRONAS.<\/p>\n

3.4 Here, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the\u00a0Sarawak Government. Congratulation to Assistant Minister for Law,\u00a0State and Federal Relations and Project Monitoring YB Sharifah Hasidah\u00a0for handling this matter since day 1 and the Sarawak legal team\u00a0comprising State Attorney-General Datuk Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid,\u00a0State Legal Counsel Dato Sri J.C Fong and the Sarawak State\u00a0Attorney-General’s Chamber for a wonderful job well done. I would like\u00a0to mention here and appreciate the full support from the Advocate\u00a0Association Sarawak, led by their President Mr. Ranbir Singh.<\/p>\n

3.5 We need to remind ourselves constantly that we did not form\u00a0Malaysia at the expense of our resources being taken away from us. We\u00a0formed Malaysia based on the understanding that we would have\u00a0political and economic cooperation to share the wealth together but\u00a0the ownership of oil and gas resources must belong to the people of\u00a0Sarawak. Therefore as owners, it is our Right to regulate the\u00a0exploration, prospecting and mining of our resources. It would be fair\u00a0statement that if our founding fathers in 1963 knew that forming\u00a0Malaysia would result Sarawak losing its oil and gas ownership, they\u00a0would never have agreed to sign the Malaysia Agreement.<\/p>\n

3.6 I refer to the State Constitution Article 47 (2), it says that\u00a0“Any land in the State which immediately before the commencement of\u00a0this Constitution was vested in Her Majesty shall on the commencement\u00a0of this Constitution vest in the State”. The commencement date of the\u00a0State Constitution was when we formed Malaysia on 16 September 1963.<\/p>\n

3.7 Therefore, immediately on 16 September 1963, all land including\u00a0natural resources (oil and gas) in the seabeds and subsoils in Sarawak\u00a0Continental Shelf as defined in the Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries)\u00a0Order in Council 1954 made on 24th June 1954 belong to Sarawak.<\/p>\n

3.8 The ownership of oil and gas belongs to the Sarawak people and\u00a0only through the passing of laws in the State Legislative Assembly can\u00a0our State boundaries such as the Territorial Waters be changed. It is\u00a0important to note that our State Legislative Assembly has never passed\u00a0any law that alter our boundaries therefore legally our State still\u00a0has full control over our land unchanged since 16 September 1963.<\/p>\n

Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker.<\/p>\n

3.9 Our people will certainly be happy to know that we will have more\u00a0oil and gas revenues and are likely to ask, what do we do with the\u00a0additional revenue from oil and gas? How can they benefit?<\/p>\n

3.10 Apart from the usual improvement on public infrastructures for\u00a0the rural and semi-rural community, we should consider to improve on\u00a0the public transportation, clean water distribution, power\u00a0distribution and health care. I would like to suggest something\u00a0different like issuing a share in PETROS to each and every Sarawakian\u00a0including the new born in the future. As part of transparency and\u00a0accountability, every year, PETROS will report their revenues of the\u00a0year to the legislative assembly and with the approval of the\u00a0legislative assembly, the dividend will be paid out to all\u00a0Sarawakians. Of course, the government has to come out with a formula\u00a0to determine the appropriate dividend to be given each year.\u00a0Sarawakians will surely be happy and look forward to receiving this\u00a0yearly dividend.<\/p>\n

3.11 We should also consider to set up a Sarawak sovereign fund or Oil\u00a0Fund. We need to plan for the future that one day the oil and gas\u00a0resources will come to an end. Such fund is to ensure that the future\u00a0generations continue to benefit from the oil and gas revenues and at\u00a0the same time, providing financial security for Sarawak in case there\u00a0is an unforeseen economic challenge. The Oil Fund will also invest in\u00a0stocks, bonds and real estate abroad and locally for higher return of\u00a0investment and I believe that our Development Bank Of Sarawak (DBOS)\u00a0should be the right government arm to handle such investment.<\/p>\n

4.0 CLOSING<\/p>\n

Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker.<\/p>\n

With the above observations I fully support the Oil Mining (Amendment)\u00a0Bill, 2018.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n

\"Dato<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1.1 Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to join the other\u00a0Honourable members of the august House in debating the Oil Mining\u00a0(Amendment) Ordinance Bill, 2018. I would like to congratulate our\u00a0Sarawak Government and Deputy Chief Minister YB Datuk Amar Haji Awang\u00a0Tengah for tabling a very comprehensive Bill. 2.0 THE BILL Datuk Amar Tuan Speaker. 2.1 The original Oil Mining Ordinance was passed in 1958 and it is\u00a0timely for this Bill to update the Oil Mining Ordinance to have better\u00a0provisions in the law to giveRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22433,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22431\/revisions\/22433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}