Petronas-Sarawak oil and gas dispute heads to Federal Court for five-day hearing from Jan 25

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 1 — The Federal Court has set five days from January 25 next year to hear petitions filed by Petroliam National Bhd (Petronas) and the Sarawak Government challenging the state and federal laws governing oil and gas matters.

Justice Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang said the petitions would be heard in the order in which they were filed.

However, she left it to the Federal Court panel hearing the petitions to decide whether to first hear the Sarawak Government’s preliminary issue on the validity of the Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council 1954 (OIC), which concerns the boundaries of Sarawak’s territorial waters.

She said given the fact that the two petitions are not consolidated, the panel hearing the petitions would be in the better position to determine whether the preliminary issue should be heard first.

Justice Rhodzariah made the decision today after the two cases came up before her for summonses for directions.

She also directed parties to file their respective submissions for the petitions as well as for the preliminary issues by January 11 and reply submissions by January 18, and she fixed January 12 for case management.

“The hearing date is fixed from January 25 until January 29, next year,” she said.

Senior state counsel Mohd Adzrul Adzlan, who is representing the Sarawak Government, informed the court that they will be filing an application with regard to their preliminary issue under Rule 23 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995 within 14 days from today.

Meanwhile, both Petronas and the Sarawak Government will write to the Chief Justice to request an enlarged panel of either a nine-man bench or an 11-man bench to hear the petitions.

Petronas and the Sarawak Government had indicated to the court previously that they wanted their respective petitions to be heard separately. Petronas wants its petition to be heard first, followed by the sequence in which the respective petitions were filed. However, the state government maintains that its petition should be heard first.

The national oil and gas company filed its petition on January 10 this year and obtained leave under Article 4 (4) of the Federal Constitution on March 16 this year, while the Sarawak Government filed its petition on February 23.

In today’s proceeding, Mohd Adzrul argued that the Federal Court panel hearing the petitions should first hear the preliminary issue concerning the OIC before proceeding to hear the petitions. However, Petronas lawyer Datuk Dr Cyrus Das argued that there was no basis to have the legal status of the OIC determined as a preliminary issue and the OIC issue can be taken up in the course of hearing of the petition.

Senior Federal Counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi representing the Federal Government, supported the submission by Petronas’s counsel, arguing that its (Petronas’s) petition should be heard first.

Regarding Sarawak Government’s preliminary issue on the validity of the OIC, he said it was not necessary for the issue to be heard by way of a preliminary point of law and the state government can bring up the issue during the main hearing.

On March 16 this year, the Federal Court granted leave to the national oil and gas company to commence proceedings to challenge the legislative competency of the Sarawak State Legislature to enact certain laws and to declare several laws made by the Sarawak State Legislature invalid.

It claimed that the Sarawak State Legislature lacked the competence to enact, modify, amend or revise law with respect to matters under List 1 of the Federal List in the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

The Sarawak Government, meanwhile, filed a petition against the Government of Malaysia and Petronas, seeking the Federal Court to determine the constitutional validity and continued applicability of several federal Acts to Sarawak.

The state government, among others, is seeking a declaration that the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA), the Continental Shelf Act 1966 and the Petroleum Mining Act 1966, as applied to Sarawak, were unconstitutional and void ab initio. — Bernama