Penampang: Upko President Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said he is committed to the cause of the party and the people of Sabah to see the Petronas gas pipeline project from Kimanis, Sabah to Bintulu, Sarawak, scrapped.
He said the party was unhappy with the Federal Government's decision to give Petronas the go-ahead to implement the project.
"I'm committed to articulating about this and I will be talking to the Cabinet on Friday. I want to pursue this," he told reporters after launching the Public Complaints Bureau's integrated mobile complaint counter, here, Thursday.
Pressed on whether it may mean the party would consider leaving the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition if its objection to the project is ignored by the Federal Government, he said:
"We will cross the bridge when we come to it but I want to pursue this (Kimanis-Bintulu gas pipeline)."
The RM1.5 billion facility is expected to be operational in 2011.
"What is presently proposed by Petronas is merely a landing point in Kimanis and from there, a pipeline is to be built to Bintulu to facilitate the export of gas to other countries in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
"They will put it in big tankers and export it. So, what we are saying here is, the gas can be used, firstly as a feed stock for downstream activities (in Sabah) and it can also be used to generate electricity so that we can have energy security for Sabah," he said.
He said the Independent Power Producer (IPP) in Gayang, Tuaran, could guarantee electricity supply for 20 years only. "What happens after 20 years? What if that amount of gas is designated for the particular IPP?" he asked.
He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had on May 31 announced shelving the project. However, on Nov. 1, the Prime Minister said the proposed 500-km long gas pipeline from Kimanis, Sabah to Bintulu would proceed.
On Tuesday, Dompok said Upko objected to the project claiming that it would not benefit the people of Sabah.
Sabah, he said, has no activity closely linked to the oil and gas industry despite the sector one of the most important in the country.
He noted that the State's economy is dependent merely on tourism and palm oil and that it was unfair if oil and gas were not given significance in Sabah's development.
Expressing unhappiness over the matter, he was confident that the people of Sabah generally share similar sentiments as that of Upko. "The gas is most needed in Sabah to implement various development projects and to develop the State's downstream industries."
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