Thursday June 25, 2009
Government working to overcome natural gas shortage, says Najib
THE Government views seriously the natural gas supply shortage in the country and has carried out various immediate measures to overcome it.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told William Leong (PKR – Selayang) that gas plants in Malaysia were only capable of producing two billion mmscfd (million standard cubic feet of gas a day).
“The demand for natural gas, especially from the industrial sector, has risen drastically over the past few years.
“Following the increase in de-mand, all of the natural gas produced in Peninsula Malaysia has already been fully contracted out to both the electrical and non-electrical sectors,” he said in a written reply made available yesterday.
Najib said as a temporary measure, a portion of the production had been re-distributed from the electrical sector to local industries.
“The Government is also aware that the price difference between gas and alternative fuel will have to be overcome in order to reduce demand.
“That is why on June 4 and July 4 last year, we decided to restructure the price of gas in stages, in which the price of the commodity for the electrical and the non-electrical sectors would be reviewed every six months.
Najib said other measures being considered were encouraging industries to carry out energy audits on their production systems to enhance efficiency and use energy-saving equipment.
“In the long term, we will also encourage the industries to optimise the co-generation facility.
“At the same time, the use of more efficient energy generation methods in the electrical sector will be studied in order to reduce gas usage. Petronas is also trying to increase natural gas supplies from overseas,” he said.
Najib said besides gas, industries could use medium fuel oil, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas for their manufacturing.
Later in the lobby, Leong told reporters that the gas shortage was affecting the country’s potential in attracting foreign direct investment.
“Many foreign companies including Samsung, Nippon Electric Glass and others have deferred their new investments ranging from RM5bil to RM8bil. The total loss is around RM14bil,” he claimed.
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