Malaysia and Brunei in joint oil, gas exploration

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN • Malaysia and Brunei will soon begin joint exploration for oil and gas in the South China Sea along the maritime boundaries shared by Sarawak and the sultanate, The Star reported yesterday.

Prime Minister Najib Razak met his Brunei counterpart, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, yesterday and both agreed to speed up commercial exploitation for oil and gas along the shared boundaries.

Datuk Seri Najib said after the meeting that Malaysia and Brunei would negotiate how much equity each would hold once commercial production began.

"The oil and gas exploration jointly undertaken by Malaysia and Brunei are in those areas where there were overlapping boundary claims before. The issues on the boundary claims have been resolved generally," he said.

Both leaders said that they were satisfied with the progress made by PetroleumBrunei and Petronas in oil and gas exploration.

"The two had signed production-sharing agreements in the commercial arrangement areas," their joint statement said. "They have also entered into joint ventures in Canada and Myanmar."

Both leaders encouraged Petro-leumBrunei and Petronas to build an offshore hub and hoped that there would be agreements for the Gumusut/Kakap and Geronggong/

Jagus East fields and the Kinabalu West NAG and Maharajalela North fields by the end of the year, the statement said.

The two leaders also agreed to enhance cooperation for security, cross-border travel and finance between Sarawak and Brunei and Sabah and Brunei.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 12, 2015, with the headline Malaysia and Brunei in joint oil, gas exploration. Subscribe