KUCHING, Sept 14 — The Sarawak Petroleum Contractors Association (Speca) is expected to start talks with Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) to give priority to oil and gas contractors from the state this November.

Its president, Datuk Rahman Lariwoo, today said this was because the association had received a letter from the Registrar of Societies (ROS) confirming that it had already approved the registration of SPECA.

"The letter is dated Aug 19, 2020, officially this organisation has been approved (its registration with ROS). After this we want to meet with the top management of Petronas to give us more opportunities (to get contracts),” he told a press conference at Wisma Bapa Malaysia, Petra Jaya, here.

He said the association would invite the top management of Petronas to Sarawak to attend the launching ceremony of the association in November.

"If they (Petronas top management) can’t come, we will go there (Kuala Lumpur) to meet and discuss with them,” he said.

Rahman said in the discussion, SPECA would ask Petronas to give priority to all or 100 per cent of their contracts related to the company’s operations in the state to Sarawak oil and gas companies.

He said this was because Sarawak currently produces 60 per cent of the total oil and gas production in Malaysia, but Sarawak oil and gas contractors receive very little benefits from the production involved even from production in their own state.

"I believe Sarawak’s oil and gas contractors are capable (of implementing all Petronas contracts), if we travel around the world, we are bound to meet Sarawakians (involved in the oil industry) because Sarawak is the first state to produce oil,” he said.

According to him, there are currently about 500 Sarawak oil and gas contractors and only about 100 contractors are active in the country’s oil industry because they have not been given many opportunities in the sector.

Apart from that, he also stressed that the association will always work with the Sarawak government’s Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros) to carry out oil exploration activities in the state. — Bernama