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

The Federal Court in Putrajaya has scheduled a five-day hearing starting January 25, to address petitions by Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) and the Sarawak Government concerning state and federal oil and gas regulations.

Justice Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang stated the petitions would be considered in the order they were submitted.

A key issue is whether Sarawak's preliminary challenge regarding the Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council 1954 should be heard first.

Both parties will request an expanded panel to address the constitutional disputes, which involve the validity of several federal Acts applicable to Sarawak.

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

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布城联邦法院已安排从 1 月 25 日开始进行为期五天的听证会，以处理马来西亚国家石油公司 (Petronas) 和砂拉越州政府就州和联邦石油天然气法规提出的请愿。

法官拿督罗扎里亚·布让表示，将按照提交顺序审理这些请愿书。

一个关键问题是，是否应该首先审理砂拉越就 1954 年砂拉越（边界变更）枢密令提出的初步挑战。

双方将要求扩大专家组，以解决宪法争议，这些争议涉及适用于砂拉越的几项联邦法令的有效性。

布城，10 月 1 日讯——联邦法院已定于明年 1 月 25 日起的五天内审理马来西亚国家石油公司 (Petronas) 和砂拉越州政府提出的请愿，这些请愿挑战了州和联邦有关石油和天然气事务的法律。

法官拿督罗扎里亚·布让表示，将按照提交顺序审理这些请愿书。

然而，她将是否首先审理砂拉越政府关于 1954 年砂拉越（边界变更）枢密令（OIC）有效性的初步问题，交由审理这些请愿的联邦法院小组决定，该枢密令涉及砂拉越领海的边界。

她表示，鉴于这两份请愿书并未合并审理，审理这些请愿书的小组将更有能力决定是否应该先审理初步问题。

今天，罗扎里亚法官在收到两起案件的传票指示后作出了裁决。

她还指示各方在 1 月 11 日前提交各自的请愿书和初步问题陈述，在 1 月 18 日前提交答复陈述，并将 1 月 12 日定为案件管理日。

“听证会日期定于明年1月25日至29日之间，”她说。

代表砂拉越政府的高级州律师莫哈末·阿兹鲁·阿兹兰告知法庭，他们将在14天内根据1995年联邦法院规则第23条，就其初步问题提出申请。

与此同时，马来西亚国家石油公司和砂拉越州政府将致函首席大法官，请求组成一个由九人或十一人组成的大法官小组来审理这些请愿书。

马来西亚国家石油公司（Petronas）和砂拉越州政府此前已向法庭表示，希望各自的请愿书分别审理。Petronas希望首先审理其请愿书，然后按照其他请愿书提交的先后顺序进行审理。然而，砂拉越州政府坚持认为其请愿书应首先审理。

国家石油天然气公司于今年 1 月 10 日提交了申请，并于今年 3 月 16 日根据联邦宪法第 4 (4) 条获得了许可，而砂拉越州政府则于 2 月 23 日提交了申请。

在今天的庭审中，莫哈末·阿兹鲁尔辩称，联邦法院审理这些请愿的小组应先审理有关石油投资公司（OIC）的初步问题，然后再审理请愿书本身。然而，马来西亚国家石油公司（Petronas）的律师拿督赛勒斯·达斯博士则认为，没有理由将石油投资公司的法律地位作为初步问题来确定，该问题可以在审理请愿书的过程中进行讨论。

代表联邦政府的高级联邦律师艾哈迈德·哈尼尔·汉巴利（@Arwi）支持马来西亚国家石油公司律师的陈述，认为应该首先审理马来西亚国家石油公司的请愿。

关于砂拉越政府提出的关于OIC有效性的初步问题，他表示，没有必要通过初步法律问题审理该问题，州政府可以在正式听证会上提出该问题。

今年 3 月 16 日，联邦法院准许国家石油天然气公司提起诉讼，质疑砂拉越州立法机关制定某些法律的立法权限，并宣布砂拉越州立法机关制定的若干法律无效。

它声称砂拉越州立法机关没有权力就联邦宪法第九附表联邦清单第一项所列事项制定、修改、修订或更新法律。

与此同时，砂拉越州政府向马来西亚政府和马来西亚国家石油公司提起诉讼，请求联邦法院裁定几项联邦法令对砂拉越的合宪性和继续适用性。

州政府等各方正在寻求法院宣告，1974年《石油发展法》、1966年《大陆架法》和1966年《石油开采法》在适用于砂拉越时违宪且自始无效。——马新社

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