RM295b pipeline plan?

PanelPoint says the first leg of the pipeline, to be built in the southern part of Malaysia, has received a 'written mandate' from the Prime Minister early this month.


Kuala Lumpur: PanelPoint Sdn Bhd said yesterday that it will form a consortium to undertake an 8,000km trans-Asian gas pipeline, linking Mersing in Johor to China, at an estimated cost of US$100 billion (RM295 billion).

PanelPoint Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Che Nordin Ismail said the first leg of the pipeline, to be built in the southern part of Malaysia, has received a "written mandate" from the Prime Minister early this month.

However, checks by Business Times with government officials revealed that they have no knowledge of the project.

The announcement follows close on the heels of claims made by a Malaysian-Iranian-Chinese joint venture on Monday that they would be awarded a contract from Petronas to develop a marginal oil field located off the coast of Terengganu.

Petronas on Wednesday disputed the claims.

PanelPoint's chief executive was bombarded with questions from the press on the authenticity of the project, as information on the plan was scare except for the details found in the company's website and the press statement released yesterday.

"We are partnering with US-based Rochester Foundation in financial matters. They are very low profile ... they have their own mechanism to fund it," he said, when pressed on the project funding.

Che Nordin, who founded PanelPoint as an integrated oil and gas specialist company in mid-1996, said Rochester Foundation chairman Robert Smith Sr is a partner in the company. "We are very confident with this project, we have done the groundwork for the past seven years," he added.

Besides Rochester Foundation, PanelPoint is also in talks with other investors to fund the project.

The project, called Trans-Asian Oil and Gas, is to link Mersing and Northern Natuna islands in Indonesia and will continue to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam and subsequently link to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China. This will be the region's first natural gas pipeline network.

Asked on gas supply, he said the company will start negotiations with national oil companies in various Asean companies, including Petronas