The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) says Petronas’ natural gas upstream facilities shutdown will lead to several manufacturing companies having to reduce their gas consumption significantly from March 30 to April 12 and April 29 to May 10.While FMM said the significant reduction of gas supply to both the power sector and manufacturers was unavoidable due to the necessity in carrying out major maintenance work at the upstream facilities, the late notification has caused anxiety among manufacturers and uncertainty for companies that have orders to meet.
“Manufacturers who have already installed infrastructure and equipment to use gas as fuel have no choice but to use gas. Their production lines would be affected and they could be penalised for failing to deliver orders on time,” it said in a media statement yesterday.
Thus, FMM has urged Petronas to ensure the maintenance and repair works at the affected facilities be carried out expeditiously and within the scheduled period so that supply and manufacturing operations can resume to normal without further delay.
It has requested that the authorities consider following lines of action to further minimise the impact, which include that companies identified to reduce consumption from March 30 to April 12 should not be subjected to reduce consumption from April 29 to May 14.
Aside from that, some companies could not operate with the 35% to 40% reduction for 14 days or 12 days as they have orders to deliver and therefore the Energy Commission and Gas Malaysia Sdn Bhd (GMSB) should consider grouping the affected companies to reduce consumption for the first seven days and another group for the next seven days within the 14 days maintenance period and similarly for the next maintenance period.
FMM added that some companies could not operate and would be forced to completely shut down operation if gas supply is reduced by 35% to 40% and therefore, they should be allowed to negotiate with GMSB to review the percentage reduction within their operation’s requirement.