If there is no discovery of new oil fields, Malaysia will run out of oil and gas in year 2017! Does it sound alarning to all of us? We Malaysians very soon will become a net importer of petroleum and natural gas. The implication of this is significant, both from the economic and also the long term survival of a nation standpoints.There are also other environmental and ecological aspects associated with this depletion of natural resources! It is something we would not want it to happen but is going to happen!
Cutting down more of our forest and planting oil palm to produce bio-fuel might be one of the solution. There are also talks about the use of nuclear energy. The ecological impact of building dams to generate hydro-electric power is just causing too much damage to the nature and our environment.
We therefore need nuclear scientists to build safe and clean nuclear plants for our energy hungry industries and also our ever rising consumption of electric power. We will have to import nuclear fuels or uranium from countries such as US, Russia etc. Talking anything about going nuclear is a taboo and sensitive issue because of too many past incidents of nuclear accidents, radiation leakage and also will draw international attention even though it is built for peaceful purposes. The process of building nuclear plants will face an uphill task of protests and resistance from the public when come to the selection of the sites, disposal of wastes and also the transportation of radioactive raw material etc.
Like it or not, we will have to build our nuclear plants for Malaysia. Send your sons and daughters to study nuclear science and one day this is a field which is going to be in great demand! This reminded me of my final year thesis supervisor Professor Tso Chih Ping, he was a PHD holder in nuclear safety from USA and he is currently lecturing in MMU Malacca. His link is as follows:
http://fetnotes.mmu.edu.my/v4/staff/cptso.html
Not to worry..
ReplyDeletewe still have small a lot of fields that we can cluster develop.. I have discovered oil in Basement (metasediment..actually) back in 2004.. our engineers are scared to develop it.. thing that the porosity is too small..Petronas is now keen to develop it.. if anything it will be develop when we no longer have any other resources. Has drill 5 wells + 2 sidetracks)..all oil up to +2000 barrel of oil per day..
Futhermore we found more oil in Sudan and has bought few fiels in Iran and Iraq...
BTW when i joined Petronas in 1979.. they say oil will last only for 17 years.. that 17 years remains now that I have been serving Petronas for +30 years..
My classmate in Shell had told me that quite some years ago and he predicted more accurately if based on the year 2017 as announced in the recent Star newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear the latest good news from an insider like you because Malaysia really needs those oil fields. It will definitely make every Malaysian very happy. Since those oil fields are now located in other countries, would that make a big difference compared to new discoveries and reserves within our own land? The foreign government might have taken a lion share of the resources and also the relevant tax revenues before anything is left for our Malaysian government?