Another project for the sake of contracts?

By: Semua Pasal Contract 

THE oil and gas project at Pulau Daat in Labaun was announced by the Prime Minister some two years ago under the economic transformation programme. It was almost abandoned after take-off.

Now we have the Minister of Federal Territory saying the project must be completed which jumpstart the Labuan economy.

In the first place Pulau Daat is not a suitable location to have an oil storage terminal.

Secondly it will not jumpstart the economy as far as the people of Labuan are concerned. With the Government assured fund, may be it can be completed but will only benefit the developer and the contractors - that is all.

As far as gas is concerned, the gas, if any around Labuan can be channeled through Kimanis.

For oil, it cannot be delivered or exported from Pulau Daat as Pulau Daat is surrounded by shallow water up to 10km radius - the distance for any tanker from Pulau Daat.

The seabed cannot be deepened because there are two big rivers both from the Eastern Side (Sabah) and Southern side (Sarawak) flowing into this area. Therefore, with the rivers flooding most of the time, the digging works continue throughout the years.

The Urea Complex at Sipitang also is in the wrong location.

Urea ship needs at least 15 to 20 metres water depth. Sipitang's shore is known to have only 5 to 10 metres depth at a distance of 10km from the proposed factory site.

The Gas Terminal in Kimanis on the other hand was wrongly located nearby the beach.

It should be built say a kilometer away from the seashore to avoid potential Tsunami or corrosive effect.

Surely, the Malaysian Government and Petronas have many experts who can find better place at Labuan such as Pulau Kuraman or plenty of Islands around in Sabah for oil farm-oil storage for export to China.

It is, therefore, not understood unless of course it is simply for the sake of projects and contracts as the trend has been lately in Malaysia.