Thread by @olliekarp

In today's #dailysoup, I'll introduce another BRI project in #Malaysia, the Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline.

Just like the East Coast Rail Link, another BRI project, it is known for its role in the 1MDB scandal, as well as its connections with a shady Chinese company.

1/16

Costing RM4.06B, the Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline (TSGP) is a proposed 662km petrochemical x gas pipeline starting from Tuaran and ending in Sandakan.

The TSGP is located at northern Sabah, which is just close to the Philippine provinces of Sulu x Palawan.

2/16

Like the ECRL, the TSGP is one of the BRI projects offered by China when infamous former Malaysian PM Najib Razak signed a 2016 deal with Beijing to bring Malaysia to the BRI to "cover up 1MDB".

Read more here for a background on the ECRL:

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1652772506770759681?s=20

3/16

The main project developers of the TSGP, as well as another similar BRI pipeline project at the western coast of the Malayan Peninsula, are China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPPB) and Suria Strategic Energy Resources (SSER), both of them state-owned firms.

4/16

CPPB is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which is notorious for its past records of corruption, oil spills, complicity with human rights abuses in Myanmar, and working with sanctioned Gazprom to supply Russian gas in the Russian Far East.

5/16

SSER, which is owned by the Malaysian Ministry of Finance, requested for loans from the Exim Bank, one of the main CCP-owned banks supplying BRI projects.

Meanwhile, SSER also got funding from Sukuk bonds and from CIMB bank.

This is where things get pretty weirder.

6/16

In 2017, after gathering loans, the SSER did an "88% scheme" when it paid in advance RM8.25B to CCPB for 88% of the total value of the TSGP project and the other BRI pipeline project at the western Malayan Peninsula coast despite their incomplete status.

7/16

Then, Malaysian insiders suspected that funds from TSGP's "88% scheme" and ECRL's "Thanos snap strategy" went to Silk Road Southeast Asia Real Estate (or simply Silk Road) via Exim Bank with some Arab shareholder, which was then used...

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1652772523204026368?s=20

8/16

...for buying the piece of land in Penang as per the Najib-CCCC secret deal on the ECRL, in which the funds were returned to Najib before going to IPIC.

Silk Road is owned by Sheikh Sabah, a CCCC-funded son of a Kuwati PM x a Jho Low ally.

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1652772536600633345?s=20

9/16

Moreover, Silk Road's purchase of a piece of land in Penang from Najib after the Najib-CCCC secret deal on the ECRL was used to launder an Exim Bank loan to SSER for the TSGP project.

10/16

After the fall of Najib x Mahathir's crackdown on BRI projects, the SSER received heavy fines coz of its "88% scheme".

Meanwhile, SSER's employees were given an indefinite leave while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission started investigating on SSER's schemes.

11/16

Besides corruption, the TSGP project experienced other symptoms of a botched BRI project.

There are concerns that TSGP lacked a feasibility study and it insisted in relying on China instead of local oil entities like Petronas.

12/16

Other concerns raised on the TSGP include a lack of an environmental permit to operate, land acquisition drama, and a lack of transparency, especially when the provisions of the TSGP project are pretty vague.

13/16

After the TSGP project was scrapped by Mahathir, it was reinstated again in 2021 by the premiership of Ismail Sabri Yaakob, thus raising questions from Malaysian officials and citizens, especially on the project's transparency.

14/16

The current premiership of Anwar Ibrahim has recently called for a "revived push" on BRI projects like the TSGP.

He added that he wants to use the BRI to "invite more Chinese foreign investment to Malaysia".

15/16

As the TSGP project in Sabah is a BRI project, its reinstatement can be dangerous, especially during Malaysia's dispute with China in the SCS, coz the project can give China more advantage in Malaysian maritime territory, especially via using the oil from the project.

16/16

Related entries:
Entry #55 (Belt and Road Initiative) -

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1652398339160440833?s=20

Entry #56 (East Coast Rail Link) -

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1652772506770759681?s=20

Entry #57 (Forest City) -

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1653134200835538944?s=20

Entry #35 (Najib Razak) -

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1641492891540533248?s=20

Related entries (cont.):
Entry #19 (Melaka Gateway) -

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1634283475275599880?s=20

For other entries, kindly visit this link: bit.ly/thedailysoup