Pipeline or piped dreams?
By ANITA GABRIEL, senior business editor who feels uneasy whenever it appears as if connections trump business sensibilities. Surely, that's not a good thing? The closely-guarded and scrupulously-monitored oil and gas sector in the country which reins are tightly gripped by the national oil company, has suddenly become a target of unknown individuals perceivedly pumped up with narcissism more than cash, trumpeting they've landed high-flying multi-billion gawk-worthy (even by stalwart standards) jobs. Really? Take for example: How is it possible that a behemoth project of this scale (talking about a 7,000km Trans-Asian Oil and Gas Pipeline project at US$100bil) which involves a full interconnection of gas transmission pipelines stretching from Mersing, Johor to Natuna Islands, Indonesia and from Hanoi, Vietnam to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China and one that without a doubt, would involve government-to-government negotiation and cooperation as well as that of the big oil com...