Home to some of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems, Malaysia’s marine habitats are threatened by ongoing and planned offshore oil and gas expansion projects, according to a first-of-its-kind report by environmental think-tank group Rimbawatch.
Data findings from satellite imagery and geospatial analysis provided by conservation non-profit SkyTruth show for the first time the full extent of the overlap between offshore oil and gas blocks and sensitive marine environments, which are areas identified as critical for biodiversity protection conservation.
This includes Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Important Marine and Coastal Areas (IMCAs), Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs), Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) and coral reefs. Malaysia’s waters form part of the Coral Triangle and Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion, which supports many threatened or endangered marine species while also supporting local livelihoods, tourism and food security.
The report finds that active or proposed oil and gas blocks overlap with 97 per cent of existing MPAs in Malaysia, which are governed by strict conservation rules limiting human activity.
“For example, the Luconia Shoals National Park in Sarawak, which is a Totally Protected Area, has been encroached on by at least 31 wells, five pipelines and seven platforms commercialising at least eight known fields holding 14.3 trillion cubic feet of environmentally harmful gas reserves,” said Rimbawatch director Adam Farhan in a statement on Monday.
Rimbawatch had previously raised concerns over oil and gas prospecting in the Tun Mustapha Marine Park in Sabah, the country’s largest marine park covering some 900,000 hectares of which drilling would put half of that area at risk.
The think tank’s latest report also estimated that oil and gas blocks overlap with 40 per cent of the country’s mapped shallow coral reefs. Risks to the ecosystem include seismic blasting, drilling operations, oil spills, heavy vessel traffic and offshore infrastructure.
Satellite monitoring data from SkyTruth also estimates that 161 oil slick incidents have occurred in Malaysia’s sensitive marine environments between January 2023 and December 2025, Rimbawatch said.
The report further estimates that only 5.3 per cent of Malaysia’s waters are currently protected, even though 38.5 per cent fall within sensitive marine environments. It concludes that current marine governance and environmental regulatory systems in Malaysia are insufficient.
Rimbawatch said that the absence of explicit barriers against oil and gas expansion in sensitive marine environments is the key gap in the Malaysia’s legal framework.
For example, domestic legal frameworks such as the National Parks Act 1980 do not recognise the risks of oil and gas to marine biodiversity, or require exclusion zones for these activities. Another example is the Tun Mustapha Park Zoning Plan, which establishes exclusion zones for extractivism for small, specific areas of the park but do not specifically exclude oil and gas in the commercial fishing zone, where extraction is planned.
Only a few voluntary corporate commitments have been made by national oil and gas firm Petronas. Rimbawatch noted that Petronas has widely advertised their contributions to marine biodiversity protection under various corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and has aimed to develop a Biodiversity Action Plan since 2024, but does not have suggestions for exclusion zones. Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros), the state’s oil company has similarly mentioned CSR efforts but do not currently have a biodiversity policy or one which establishes marine exclusion zones for ecosystem protection, the report added.
“It is deeply concerning that Malaysia’s existing marine park governance practices and environmental laws do not bar or discourage oil and gas production from taking place,” said Adam.
Rimbawatch urged the Malaysian government and regulators to take immediate action, giving suggestions such as creating a policy to establish exclusion zones for oil and gas activities and adequate buffer zones around MPAs.
The think tank also recommended that financial regulators enforce binding exclusions on insurance and investment for fossil fuel projects in protected areas.
