BY NOOR SYAHHIRA HADY & SARAH HAFIZAH CHANDRA
BINTULU: Sarawak is scheduled to commission its own methanol production in January next year for the open market.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the Sarawak Petchem Methanol plant will be ready this year.
The plant will commence a trial period with gas channelled to it in April.
In light of this, the state government is also planning to have a dedicated jetty to allow international shipping and delivery of methanol to the market.
“As such, we have appointed a workforce for a relatively sophisticated industry such as petrochemicals. Moreover, after the success of this methanol operation here, we will build a second plant.
“From the financial perspective, we are ready to build the second plant for methanol production. However, this second plant will be funded by the private sector investment and not the government.
“This is due to the financial institutions having confidence in the effort of the downstream gas industry in our state,” he said.
The Premier said this during his visit to the Sarawak Petchem Methanol in Bintulu today (Jan 31).
With the recent 10 oil and gas discoveries by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), Abang Johari said eight are in Sarawak which indicates Sarawak’s gas feedstock is sufficient for its future.
“What we need now is to use the latest technology to encourage downstream activities for petrochemicals plants,” he said.
Following this, Abang Johari also said the state government will develop a petrochemical hub in stages.
The state government will provide the infrastructure for it, and it will be constructed and developed with investments.
