Sabah Oil and Gas Development Sdn Bhd (SOGDC) is considering three companies to build its second ammonia plant costing US$800 million (RM3.4 billion).
Sabah Industrial Development Minister Raymond Tan said the new ammonia project would be sited next to the present Sabah ammonia urea (Samur) plant in the Sipitang Oil & Gas Industrial Park (Sogip).
“The plan is being studied by the SOGDC board of directors with applications from Eurochem, a China consortium and Petronas’s Markisa being considered,” he said.
The project was expected to be completed in 2021, he said when replying to Limus Jury (Upko-Kuala Penyu) in the state assembly today.
SOGDC, a wholly owned company of the state government, was also actively searching for an investor to lead downstream activities such as oil and gas storage and filtering, he added.
Apart from the Samur project, Tan said Petronas Gas Berhad was also building lateral gas pipelines in Sogip that would generate revenue for the state.
On a related matter, Tan said a total of 180 mmscfd (million standard cubic feet per day) of gas was allocated for use at Sogip, out of which 90 mmscfd is for the Samur project.
Tan also said that as of May, 409 permanent job opportunities were created by investments in Sogip, of which 259 or 62.6% were filled by locals.