Sarawak's oil and gas company officially formed, professionals appointed to be board members

KUCHING, August 7, 2017: The Sarawak wholly-owned oil and gas company, Petroliam Sarawak (Petros) has been officially formed.

Abang Johari: All board members are professionals, no politicians appointed

“Tonight, I want to tell you that we have officially formed Petros,” Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari at a dinner gathering organised by the Chief Minister's Office last night.

He said all the board members of the company had been appointed consisting of Sarawakian professionals with wide experience in the oil and gas industry and that none of them were politicians.

Abang Johari, who was accompanied by his wife, Datin Amar  Juma’ani Tun Tuanku Bujang, however, did not reveal the names of the board members, or the chairman or the CEO of the company. 

The formation of Petros is an unprecedented step taken by the state government to enable Sarawak to actively participate in the extraction of oil and gas in Sarawak's territorial waters while still pursuing its request for a 20 per cent royalty from Petronas. 

He added that the chief executive officer of the newly-formed Development Bank of Sarawak (DBoS) had been appointed, but did not give any name and that the bank would start its operation soon.

He also pointed that all the board members of DBoS were professionals and non-politicians under the chairmanship of Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani, who is also the State Secretary.

“We have appointed the CEO already and this CEO will have his team under the supervision of the state secretary  and also the board members are all non-politician, but  professionals who will carry out activities of the bank to develop our state,” he said.

The chief minister said steps are being taken to strengthen the state’s human capacity by giving Sarawakians the opportunities to pursue postgraduate studies locally and overseas.

He said Sarawak Foundation, of which he is the chairman, would increase the number of Sarawak students receiving scholarships and loans  for postgraduate studies  at local and foreign universities.

“And I have requested Sarawak Foundation to give all postgraduate scholarships, particularly PhDs because giving our children opportunities to study to PhD level will give birth to new researches and researches are important in order to add value to our resources,” he pointed out.

He reiterated that a state research council under the chairmanship of Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin would be set up to oversee all the future research efforts and how they could benefit the state.

He said for a start he has personally instructed that a research be carried out in collaboration with Swinburne University on prototyping an oil palm fruit harvesting machine that would be equipped with a sensor to automatically determine the ripeness of fruit.

He added that he had also instructed that a research be conducted on the search for protein materials among the state’s rich biodiversity resources that could replace human DNA protein in a joint effort with research being carried by Swinburne University main campus in Australia.

He expressed his belief that the identification of such a protein and its extraction would bear great significance to the continuing search for the treatment of cancer.

He thanked all the ministries for their support in the pursuit of new policies, approaches and technologies to transform Sarawak into a digital economy under his leadership.

He encouraged other ministries to hold similar gathering to honour their staff officers and appreciate their support towards the government’s effort to leapfrog the economy from conventional economy to one that is based on digital technologies.  

The reception was also to coincide with the 67th birthday of the chief minister that fell on August 4.

Among those present were Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, State Secretary Tan Sri Mohamad Morshidi, Utilities Minister Datuk Dr Stephen Rundi anak Utom,  Manyin, Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Professor Dr Sim Kui Hian, Integrity and Ombudsman Minister  Datuk Talip Zulpilip,Tourism, Arts, Culture Youth and Sports Minister Datuk  Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah and assistant ministers.