A group of Malaysian energy companies is prospecting for oil and gas in a biodiverse protected marine reserve in the state of Sabah, according to an investigation by an environmental campaign group.
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National oil company Petronas is among a number of firms looking to drill in the Tun Mustapha Marine Park (TMP), a marine protected area that was gazetted by the Sabah government less than a decade ago, a report by Kuala Lumpur-based RimbaWatch finds.
RimbaWatch identified the potential drilling site by overlaying a map of potential oil and gas exploration sites published by Petronas with data on the marine protected area in Sabah. Petronas has estimated that 4.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent – about a quarter of Malaysia’s remaining reserves – are to be extracted in a block of the sea located almost entirely in the TMP, known as SB-403.
Proposed oil and gas extraction sites within the Tun Mustapha Marine Park [click to enlarge]. Source: Rimbawatch
The state oil giant was awarded a production sharing contract to develop fossil fuel resources in block SB-403 with mining firm E&P Malaysia Venture and Sabah state oil company SMJ Energy in January of this year.
Petronas said then that the SB-403 exploration block was one of six to be developed in Sarawak and Sabah that are aligned with the company’s efforts to ensure energy security and underlie its “commitment towards a lower carbon future.”
RimbaWatch noted that Petronas did not state in its communications that the SB-403 exploration block was located in a gazetted nature reserve.
Tun Mustapha Marine Park is classified as a Category VI marine protected area by the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which means natural resources within it must be sustainably managed with the aim of preserving biodiversity over the long term. Oil and gas extraction does not align with the aims of IUCN Category VI protected areas, and zoning plans for the park only permit small-scale, low-impact activities including non-destructive traditional fishing, sport fishing and parasailing.
However, according to the exploration map published by Petronas, the fossil fuel prospects and wells in SB-403 are all located directly inside the TMP’s borders. This shows that exploration activity has already occurred in the park and wells have been established, Rimbawatch said in its report, published on Wednesday.
TMP is Malaysia’s largest marine park, covering an area of around 900,000 hectares. It has been identified as a priority seascape in the coral triangle because of its biodiversity, and contributes to 2 percentage points of Malaysia’s national target of conserving 10 per cent of its coastal and marine areas.
Drilling in the park would put 45,000 hectares (ha) of coral reefs, 17,000 ha of mangroves, and over 180 vulnerable and endangered species at risk, including green turtles and dugongs, the non-profit warned.
Extraction activity would also threaten the livelihoods of over 85,000 villagers, including from the Bajau Laut and Bajau Ubian Indigenous communities. Based on a map produced by WWF-Malaysia, a conservation group that helped develop the TMP as a marine protected area, a large portion of the TMP’s traditional fishing grounds are located in the western portion of the park, close to the proposed oil and gas wells.
There is no publicy available environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the planned drilling projects, and Rimbawatch highlighted that all oil and gas field developments in Malaysia require an EIA. Any activity in a national or state park requires a second EIA, which would also involve a public consultation process. RimbaWatch noted that the planned work in SB-403 is not listed on the Department of Environment’s EIA database.
The Sabah Parks department and the Sabah state government had not responded to queries from Eco-Business at the time of publication.
In a statement on 2 October, the Sabah state government said it had not received any applications or granted any approvals for oil and gas exploration in the Tun Mustapha Marine Park.
Petronas declined to comment on the findings.
WWF-Malaysia said it is “actively engaging” with government agencies to understand the proposed plans and their impacts, and advocates for the protection of the TMP to ensure any development “aligns with sustainable conservation principles.”
The non-profit added that the marine reserve is working towards achieving IUCN Green List status, which recognises effectively managed protected natural areas.
Rimbawatch noted that new oil and gas extraction is not compatible with the 1.5°C target set out by the Paris Agreement and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that oil and gas extraction puts the planet on a tragectory for 3.2°C of warming by 2100.
The planned drilling in the TMP also jars with Petronas’ stated decarbonisation ambition, which is to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050, a target set in 2020. A United Nations High-Level Expert Group report has said that these net zero commitments are “entirely incompatible with continued investment in fossil fuels”, and that corporations cannot claim to be net zero while continuing to extract fossil fuels. Neither EPMV or SMJ Energy have an emissions target.
RimbaWatch has called on the Sabah Parks department to work with Sabah state government to ensure that no oil and gas exploration permits in the park are approved. The nonprofit said Petronas should commit to excluding oil and gas exploration in protected areas.
On 4 October, RimbaWatch and Greenpeace Malaysia drafted an open letter to the Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation and the Sabah state government, calling for a halt to prospecting activities, which “could harm fishing communities, damage biodiversity and are contrary to the aims of the establishment of the marine park and climate science”. The letter was co-signed by 25 NGOs. WWF-Malaysia did not sign the letter.
This story was updated on 2 October with a response from WWF-Malaysia and comments from the Sabah state government made to the local press. It was updated again on 4 October, including an open letter co-signed by 25 NGOs and sent to Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation and the Government of Sabah.
