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| Pengerang residents take part in a protest against Petronas’s RAPID project, September 30, 2012.—File pic |
According to the Singapore daily, Keppel may get a 30 per cent stake in the 1,200MW plant that will be part of Petronas’s Refinery and Petrochemicals Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang.
The deal will also be the first investment involving a Singapore firm in Malaysia’s domestically dominated power sector.
“Keppel is constantly evaluating opportunities where it is able to grow its businesses,” a Keppel spokesman was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The plant will primarily provide for the energy needs of the RAPID project but may also supply to the surrounding Johor areas as well as Singapore.
But one analyst speaking to the newspaper questioned the mechanics of such a supply arrangement.
“Commercially speaking, how do you sell electricity from one plant at different rates (to Malaysia and Singapore)?” asked the analyst.
The deal may also be viewed as helping Malaysia lay another brick in the RM60 billion project in Pengerang that is aimed at challenging Singapore’s dominance as Asia’s largest oil and gas hub.
“Singapore can view Pengerang as a threat or an opportunity. There are bigger opportunities if it chooses to embrace it,” one observer was quoted saying by the newspaper.
The likelihood of a supply deal to the island republic will likely further rile up locals already opposed to the RAPID project in Pengerang, where the opposition Pakatan Rakyat converged during the weekend to tap into growing resentment over the development in Umno’s so-called bastion state.
The Himpunan Hijau Lestari mass rally across the weekend was seen as blowing the lid off months of simmering frustrations felt by Pengerang’s 28,000-odd villagers who believe the mega project would come at too great a cost to their livelihoods.
“It’s always hard to please everyone. It’s up to the government to have the determination to push this project through and settle these local issues to attract investments,” a market watcher told the Singapore daily.
According to media reports, the state government has already invoked compulsory land acquisition under Section 8 of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 to resettle the seven villages occupying the 6,424-acre space earmarked for the project.
But the government’s plans have still run afoul the local communities living in the many fishing villages girdling the southern shore of Pengerang, who fear the project may irreparably damage their livelihoods.
PR leaders have vowed to dismantle the project if the pact is voted into power in the coming general election due by April 2013, a pledge that is set to test the resolve of Umno and the ruling Barisan Nasional for the RAPID project in the run-up to the polls.
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