Petronas projects in Sabah, a '1Malaysia gift'

The Sabah Ex-Servicemen Association of Malaysia sees the many employment opportunities created by Petronas in the state as a "1Malaysia gift" for Sabahans.

Its chairperson, Muhammad Firdaus Joseph Abdullah, said the national oil company's approach to give priority to recruiting locals for its many ongoing projects in Sabah was laudable and was in line with the caring concept of 1Malaysia introduced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

For example, the Sabah Ammonia Urea Project (SAMUR), a project by Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd in Sipitang, itself would see the creation of about 400 employment jobs once it is fully operational and the locals would stand to benefit most from the project, he told Bernama in Kota Kinabalu today.

The mega fertiliser plan will be the largest single-train granular urea production facility in Southeast Asia with an annual capacity of 1.2 million metric tonnes.

Its output will be exported and also cater for local agricultural needs.

Chief Minister Musa Aman ( right ) recently said Sabah firms were also set to be awarded contracts worth some RM600 million in the RM4.6 billion Samur Plant project.

The local firms to be awarded the contracts will undertake civil works, construction of the administration complex, road and jetties, as well as earthwork, inland transportation and power supply.

Firdaus said apart from SAMUR, Petronas was currently embarking on other mega projects such as the Sabah-Sarawak Integrated Oil and Gas Project and the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal that will surely provide employment for locals.

"Obviously, we will see a better future for our people, particularly the young generation, in terms of employment and business opportunities with Petronas in Sabah.

"We thank Petronas for its seriousness and commitment towards developing the oil and gas industry in Sabah and directly provide many jobs and business opportunities for our people," he said.

Firdaus also hailed Petronas' decision to set up an industrial training and learning centre in Kimanis to provide training programmes and courses for Sabahans so that they could easily fit into the many segments of the oil and gas and related industries.

The RM50 million training centre is expected to be ready in 2013.

- Bernama