Interstate gas pipeline blast

MIRI: A fiery blast ripped apart a section of the Sabah-Sarawak interstate gas pipeline project (SSGP) at the stretch between Lawas town and Long Sukang in the northernmost district of Sarawak, resulting in the temporary shutdown of the RM4bil project owned by national oil giant Petronas.

The incident happened at about 2am yesterday, triggering panic among the people of the surrounding settlements who could see the fire and feel the heat kilometres away.

Lawas MP Datuk Henry Sum Agung, when contacted by The Star yesterday, said a full-scale investigation had started in Lawas as well as in Kuala Lumpur.

“The incident resulted in the temporary evacuation of villagers at nearby settlements, with some houses and vehicles damaged by the impact of the shockwave. Luckily, no lives were lost in the incident. A high-level investigation has started to determine the cause of the incident.

“Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim has said that the PM’s Department is concerned about what happened and wants a full-scale probe. Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi also said that his ministry was very concerned that such an incident happened and wanted to know what was the exact cause.

“I spoke to both of them today. I am in Parliament now. I learnt that Petronas has also started its internal probe,” he said.

State Fire and Rescue Department director Nor Hisham Mohamad said the fire had been brought under control and that the project developer and his department had formed a joint committee to probe the incident at site.

He said the pipeline had a safety shut-off system to prevent fire from spreading if such incident should occur at any portion of the pipeline route.

The affected section of the pipeline is located between Lawas town and Long Sukang, about 40km away.

Long Sukang is a hilly settlement located along the rural road into the Ba’Kelalan highlands.

The pipeline project, which was completed early this year, is meant to channel raw gas from Kimanis in Sabah to Bintulu some 600km away. Kimanis is about 140km from the border with Sarawak.

The pipeline passes through Lawas District and Ulu Baram District before entering Miri and onwards to Bintulu.

The raw gas from Kimanis is channelled to Bintulu for processing at a plant located in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) belt.

At the plant, the raw gas is converted into liquified natural gas for export.

To a question on how such a huge fire could have occured since the pipeline was supposed to be buried deep underground, Sum said only Petronas could respond to that.

“The pipeline is a long one, obviously there must be some serious faults to have ignited such a huge fire.

“My contacts living along the Lawas to Long Sukang route told me that the shockwave from the site of the incident could be felt many kilometres away. The affected section of the pipeline is located along hilly terrains at Bukit Berku,” he said.

The Star learnt that some parts of the pipeline were not buried underground, but were in fact running along the ground surface, such as the case along the Miri to Bintulu section.

Lawas SPDP chairman Datuk Nelson Balang Rining said he had been inundated with calls from concerned people in Lawas.

“The incident is serious. People said they could see and feel the flames even though they are far away from the site of the incident. Initial feedback from people there said that they heard the pipeline had exploded,” he said.

The construction of the massive pipeline started more than four years ago, but there were a lot of interruptions at the initial stages because of protests and land compensation claims from unhappy natives whose land had to be acquired to enable the pipelines to be laid.

The gas pipeline is meant not only for the export of liquified natural gas. Petronas also has plans to process the gas for domestic use inside Sabah and Sarawak at a later stage.

Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur Petronas has confirmed the incident.

It also confirmed that the fire had been put out and that there was no injury reported.

“The incident had not affected any of the communities along the pipeline, the closest of which are located 9km away from the incident area.

“The authorities had been informed and an investigation on the incident was being carried out.

“Petronas will provide more information on the incident when it is in the position to do so,” it said.