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Natural Resources
| BDA has identified four
major resource-based industries which have good investment potential
for development in Bintulu, namely petrochemical, timber-base,
agro-based and tourism. For these industries, Bintulu offers various
natural resources.
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Sarawak has a total known gas reserve of about 50 trillion standard cubic feet (Tscf) and 85 percent of this reseve, which is about 42.3 Tscf, is situated offshore Bintulu and the rest is situated offshore Miri. Out of this total gas reserve, about 35 Tscf has been committed for the Asean Bintulu Fertilizer (ABF), SESCO, Malaysia Liquiefied Natural Gas (MLNG), Middle Distillates Synthesis and Formaldehyde Resin Plants. PETRONAS, Malaysia's natioanl oil and gas corporation, together with the Production Sharing Contractors, is actively exploring the gas prospects in this region and more gas discoveries are expected to be found. The total gas reseve is more tahn adeqauate to meet the above gas projects and the rest could be utilized for other development of petrochemical industries. Among the petrochemical projects recommended for Bintulu are polypropylene, caprolactam, ammonia, compound fertilizer, menthyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and other viable projects. |
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Sarawak has a total known oil reserve of about 0.8 billion barrels of which 0.35 billion are situated offshore Bintulu. The reserve is mostly located in the producing fields situated about 30 to 40 kilometers off the Bintulu coast. In 1999, a total of 254 million barrels of crude oil was exported from Bintulu which is about 20 percent of the total crude oil export of Sarawak. The substantial deposits of crude oil off the Bintulu coastline prompted the establishment of the then Bintulu Crude Oil Terminal (BCOT) (now known as Sarawak Shell Bintulu Plant), operated by Sarawak Shell Berhad (SSB), located at Tanjung Kidurong. An important feature of the BCOT is that it incorporates facilities to process gas for sale to other industries that may be set up in Bintulu. The excellent port facilities and the crude oil availability have created opportunities for the setting up of oil-based industries in Bintulu. |
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About 12.5 million hectares of Sarawak land is under forest, of which 3.4 million hectares or 27.2 per cent are in Bintulu. In the past, almost all the logs were exported with little processing done locally. However, in recent years, the government has imposed quota on the volume of logs to be exported so as to encourage local downstream timber processing activities. As a result, there has been an upsurge in investment in the timber processing industries in Bintulu in the past few years as well as in future. In view of the fact that Bintulu is richly endowed with tropical timber, there are still good opportunities for the setting up of large and modern timber complexes. |
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The northern region of Sarawak including Bintulu Division has been found the most fertile and suitable for large scale agricultural development. Not less than 500,000 hectares of such land has been identified for plantations. At present, approximately 57,740 hectares have been cultivated with oil palm, 2,000 hectares with rattan and 815 hectares with pepper. However, more than 100,000 hectares of the land has been allocated for plantations, leaving still huge tracts for potential investors. For more information, refer agriculture website here |
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Coking coal deposits of economic potential have been discovered in several areas of the Bintulu region. Each area has a probable reserve ranging form 750,000 tonnes to about 12 million tonnes. The most important deposits are in Segan, Kampung Jepak, Sungai Kalabat and Sungai Sera with a total inferred reserves of 20 million tonnes. The coal found in Bintulu area shows consistent quality. They are low in rank and high in volatile matter with low ash content and high sulphur. Most of the Bintulu coal show coking property which can be used as blending coal for iron smelting. The deposits at the Merit-Pila areas, not far from Bintulu, contain about 375 million tonnes of lignite coal. |