Abstract:

The inceptions of oil and gas industry in district of Dungun, Terengganu injected the participation of the local communities in the industry and other related activities. The industry has become the prominent features in the east coast economic region of Malaysia. The study focuses on strategic assessment on economic issues involving theoretical models such as the Boomtown theoretical model. Economic impact particularly the household income tends to have a strong effect on the well-being of the local communities.  This is a preliminary study that focuses on the perception of the local communities towards oil and gas industrial activities on the sustainability of household income and wealth creation. Appropriate concepts and measures are adopted to examine the wealth creation and distribution over the past three decades within the 10 km radius from the operations of the oil and gas industry. The empirical findings conclude that the local communities do not really benefit economically from the spillover effects of the oil and gas industry especially on income stability and poverty eradication. Poverty in the area remains as a critical issue. However, the communities are satisfied with their physiological needs and some improvement can be seen in their earnings in the past 30 years.