By Ling Hui and Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, June 9: The Bintulu-Samalaju gas pipeline, which is part of the Sarawak Gas Roadmap (SGR), is expected to go online by 2025 or 2026.
Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) senior vice president (corporate strategy) Abang Arabi Abang Narudin said the 70-kilometre-long gas pipeline, once completed, will channel natural gas from Bintulu to the Samalaju Industrial Park.
He said Samalaju is one of the four oil and gas strategic hubs in Sarawak other than Bintulu, Miri, Kuching, and the only thing lacking currently is access to natural gas supply.
In Samalaju, Abang Arabi noted, there are other industrial opportunities such as the integrated ammonia industrial cluster, industrial fuel, and exporting ammonia as hydrogen carrier.
Meanwhile, he said the potential to tap into the petrochemical market lies in Bintulu where Sarawak’s first methanol plant is being constructed at Tanjung Kidurong.
“One big opportunity is the olefins-aromatics complex with integrated mixed feed cracker and condensate splitter, but that would require the import of ethane and condensate,” he said during Sarawak-Korea Energy Business Forum 2022 at a local hotel here today.
Ultimately, Abang Arabi said the intended development in terms of downstream industries of the oil and gas sector is aimed at expanding domestic gas utilisation in Sarawak, that is, producing over 50 per cent of gas resources in Malaysia. — DayakDaily
