KUALA LUMPUR: National oil company Petronas paid out a total of RM26.839 billion in royalties to the federal government and the state governments of Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak for the financial years ended March 2004 till March 2007. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Amirsham A Aziz said the royalty paid to the federal government was RM13.420 billion, Terengganu RM7.364 billion, Sabah RM1.234 billion and Sarawak RM4.821 billion. He said the country’s crude oil reserves and condensate were expected to last 22 years while the gas reserves 39 years.
“Although it looks like the reserves period is long, the reality is the country is also importing oil and gas to partly cater to the local demand. Therefore, the country is expected to become a net importer of energy in the near term projected to be by 2014,” he said during the question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday. He was replying to a question from Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR-Permatang Pauh). On Petronas contribution or royalties to the states, he said they were paid according to the formula that had been fixed which is five per cent or half of the royalty received by the federal government.
Amirsham said the petroleum and gas products exported by the subsidiary companies of Petronas are based on world market prices while in the domestic market, the prices of pr 2dd5 oducts sold are partly fixed by the government such as the sale of gas to the electric sector and non electric sector. Petronas recorded a total revenue of RM165.3 billion from the sales of its petroleum and gas products for the financial year ended March 31, 2007. To a question on whether the government had agreed to paying Sarawak a royalty rate of 20 per cent for the oil from new oil fields, Amirsham said as at this point the government had no plans to review the royalty.
