(From left) Mohd Bakke, Abang Johari, Awang Tengah and others before the start of the dialogue session. – Photo by Sarawak Public Communications Unit

KUCHING (Nov 8): The Sarawak government has expressed its willingness to work with national oil company Petronas in exploring alternative energy production, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.

“We can discuss more about exploring other forms of energy aside from oil and gas because I personally feel the values of oil and gas resources will eventually drop from the context of global business, since alternative energy will be preferred by the industries,” he said.

He said this during the 3rd annual Sarawak-Petronas strategic dialogue session at the Petronas Twin Tower in Kuala Lumpur today, according to a report from the Sarawak Public Communication Unit (Ukas).

On that note, Abang Johari also said that the Sarawak government is open to exploring greater cooperation between Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) and Petronas in the management of oil and gas resources in the state.

He said the dialogue held under a commercial agreement between Sarawak and Petronas also discussed the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) initiative, as well as Petronas’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the education field.

“We have discussed intensively about the CCUS carbon storage initiative and Petronas’s CSR activities to support us, particularly in the education field,” he said.

Abang Johari also expressed gratitude that the dialogue was co-chaired by Petronas chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh himself under the commercial agreement between the two parties in Kuala Lumpur today.

Among those present at the dialogue were Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, State Secretary Datuk Amar Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki, Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Law, MA63 and State-Federal Relations) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, Sarawak Attorney-General Datu Saferi Ali, State Financial Secretary Dato Sri Dr Wan Lizozman Wan Omar, state Ministry of International Trade, Industry and Investment advisor Dato Sri Mohd Naroden Majais, and state legal advisor Dato Sri JC Fong.