Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok is standing firm in his call for all works on the 500-kilometre gas pipeline project from Kimanis to Bintulu, Sarawak to be stopped in accordance with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s announcement that it has been scrapped
. “I go by the PM’s announcement. The PM came here on May 31 and he announced that the pipeline is stopped,” he told reporters here yesterday. “Now I hear a lot of dissenting voices from Petronas but I have to tell Petronas and everybody that I go by the PM’s announcement and this project should not go on,” he said when commenting on Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman’s statement yesterday that the RM 3 billion project was in fact still on. Musa said that as far as the State Government was concerned, the project would proceed but they would seek a clarification from Petronas on the status. Early last week, Dompok who is the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organization (Upko) President and Penampang Member of Parliament, had urged the State Government to insist on Petronas not to continue with the pipeline project because it had been scrapped. Statements from Petronas, he said, however contradicted what was announced by the Prime Minister and added, “but we must insist that Petronas carries out what was announced by the Prime Minister”. Dompok had asserted that what Petronas has done was standing up against the Chief Executive of the country. Even though the Prime Minister had made an executive decision to cancel the RM3 billion project, Petronas seemed to have disregarded the announcement through its action. When asked if Petronas representatives have met with him to discuss the matter, Dompok replied, ‘the Cabinet said that they will come ... that they should come and see me but so far they haven’t.” Meanwhile, Assistant Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Donald Datuk Peter Mojuntin stressed that Petronas has a lot of explaining to do as to why it is proceeding with the pipeline project. “Petronas has to clarify if the project is on. They have to explain to the people in Sabah what has happened ... (if) the PM made a mistake or what,” the Moyog Assemblyman said, adding that the ‘ball is in Petronas’ court’ to clear up the air about the project. “PM says one thing, Petronas does another thing. Which is real? Explain to us if you are going to take away the gas from us,” he said and added that Petronas jnurt also tell the people in Sabah what will it eventually do to make Kimanis an oil and gas hub. According to him, the gas that will be channelled to Bintulu will be more or less all that is produced from existing fields in Sabah. But, he questioned what about the fields that are just being discovered and are not producing yet. “These new fields would probably start producing in five years time, so what is going to happen then?” he said.
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