Malaysia stands by its claim on oil and gas in its waters, but open to talks with China, says Anwar

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is open to holding talks with China on its oil and gas claims in the South China Sea but would not back down from its own territorial claims, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The Prime Minister said that the oil and gas reserves in the South China Sea were a revenue source for the country and that oil drills by PETRONAS would continue.

He said that he had informed this “sensitive issue” to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his official visit to China last week.

Anwar said that as PETRONAS has one of its biggest oil platforms in the South China Sea, the revenue was important for Malaysia.

“However, as China is claiming that it has rights to it, I am willing to sit down and discuss, but as we are a small country dependent on the revenue, we will continue to claim our rights to it,” said Anwar.

He said this at the April monthly meeting between the Prime Minister and the staff of the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday (April 3) in Putrajaya.

The Prime Minister was most likely referring to the tensions revolving around the development of the Kasawari gas field in the Malaysian part of the South China Sea in Block SK316 offshore Sarawak.

PETRONAS Carigali, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malaysian national oil company PETRONAS, is the developer and operator of the Kasawari gas field.

First discovered in 2011, Kasawari has been under development for several years. It is estimated to hold about three trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas resources.

Scheduled to come on-stream in 2023, Kasawari is expected to produce up to 900 million cubic feet per day (cf/d) of gas.

Over the past years, Beijing has been persistent in challenging its neighbours’ oil and gas activities within their own exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea.

ENDS

South China Sea, Oil and Gas, China, Anwar Ibrahim, PETRONAS