JOHOR BAHRU, June 20 (Bernama) -- The Johor state government does not receive any royalty from the Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) Project in Pengerang as a source of state revenue.

Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said this is because it is refining oil and gas extracted from outside of the state such as Terengganu.

"There is no royalty...it is an investment in the oil and gas industry. We only obtain revenue through land premium on the industrial land," he said.

He said the situation was different from Terengganu which received revenue from the federal government because the source of oil and gas was found in Kertih in the state.

He disclosed this at the Johor State Legislative Assembly session here today when replying to a supplementary question from Jaafar Hashim (BN-Senggarang) who wanted to know whether the state government received any royalty from the project.

Meanwhile, Ayub Jamil (BN-Rengit) and Hamimah Mansor (BN-Penawar) also asked about the size of the investment and manpower spinoff from the project in Pengerang.

Abdul Ghani said the overall oil and gas refinery project would constitute 33 per cent of the Economic Transformation Programme as announced by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

"This shows how important is the oil and gas refinery project in Pengerang which is expected to generate RM17.7 billion to the Gross National Product by 2020.

"It is also providing 8,500 professional job opportunities and 40,000 in the semi-professional and semi-skilled areas," he said.

According to him, the state government did not marginalise the fishermen in the area and they were given the choice of continuing as fishermen or join the industrial sector.