Covid-19: SOPs for natural resources sector

28 May 2020

On 1 May 2020, the Prime Minister of Malaysia announced that all businesses except those which are set out in the List of Prohibited Activities are permitted to operate from 4 May 2020 (‘MCO Phase 4’) subject to strict compliance with the standard operating procedures (‘SOP’) established by the relevant regulatory authorities. Our earlier Alert on MCO Phase 4 is available here.

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources had on the same day issued SOPs for the energy and natural resources sectors (‘keTSA SOPs’).

The keTSA SOPs state that –

all businesses/ business activities under the forestry subsector except those which are set out in the List of Prohibited Activities are permitted to operate subject to the rules by the relevant local authority as well as the directives and procedures by the Ministry of Health Malaysia and the National Security Council (as the case may be);
businesses/ business activities under the forestry subsector which are located in areas under the enhanced movement control order are not permitted to operate (as the case may be); and
all businesses/ business activities under the minerals subsector except those which are set out in the List of Prohibited Activities are permitted to operate subject to the principal company listing the sub-contractors under it and applying for the relevant approvals for the said subcontractors from the relevant regulatory authority.

The activities relating to the natural resources sector which are included in the List of Prohibited Activities are forest ecotourism, forestry trainings and new application for a short-firer examination (both theory and practical).

Although the keTSA SOPs set out SOPs for the electricity supply subsector, gas supply subsector, forestry subsector and minerals subsector, this Alert will only provide a summary (in the English language) of the salient points of the keTSA SOPs for the minerals subsector and the logging and wood-based industries of the forestry subsector. Our summary is available here.

Alert prepared by Tan Wei Liang (Associate) of Skrine.

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Covid-19: SOPs for natural resources sector