Petronas on Wednesday officially handed over ownership of a RM464 million water treatment plant which supplies treated water to the Kerteh Integrated Petrochemical Complex (KIPC) in Kerteh to the Terengganu state government.

The handover by Syarikat Bekalan Air KIPC Sdn Bhd (BAKIPC) which operates the plant is six years earlier than the agreed schedule.

Menteri Besar Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman said under the BAKIPC takeover, the state government agreed to give the asset ownership to Menteri Besar (Incorporated) Terengganu (MBI) while Veolia Water (Dungun) Sdn Bhd would be the operator of the water treatment plant.

"The BAKIPC treatment plant which has a capacity of 230 million litres of clean water daily for Dungun, began operations in August 2002 to ensure no water supply disruption to KIPC.

"The state government had earlier signed a 20-year water concession agreement with BAKIPC until year 2022 with the option to extend the contract by five years," he said when speaking at the plant handing over ceremony here.

Also present were Petronas president and chief executive officer Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin and state executive councillors.