Is Petronas An Ungrateful Child of Malaysia?

JULY 12 — In early June Petronas hinted publicly at the World Gas Conference that it is tired of being the Malaysian government’s cash cow. It said no to fuel subsidy and last year it said it wanted to pay less dividends!

Is Petronas ungrateful? The money belongs to the rakyat anyway and hence the government.

While many have attempted to comment on the sustainability of Petronas’ payouts, this article aims to give some insights into the realities of the local oil and gas industry, and why returning all oil harvests back to Malaysians may not be to the benefit of Malaysians themselves in the longer run.

In 1974, Petronas, fully owned by the government of Malaysia, was established and given full ownership and control of our petroleum reserves. Today, it has evolved into a fully integrated oil and gas multinational corporation, ranked among Fortune 500’s largest and most profitable oil and gas corporations with a total workforce of more than 30,000.

Petronas RAPID to Draw RM120,000,000,000

KOTA TINGGI: The Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project in Pengerang is expected to draw RM120 billion in investments during the next five to six years.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the complex had recently also drawn the interest of a Taiwan-based petrochemical company, which is conducting an investment study to build an integrated oil and petrochemical complex to complement the Petronas Rapid project.

Najib said the Taiwan petrochemical company’s project was worth between US$10 billion and US$12billion (RM30.72 billion and RM36.86 billion).

Oil & Gas News: Petronas Makes Significant Oil Discovery Offshore Sabah

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 15): Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s exploration and production arm Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. has made a significant oil discovery offshore Sabah.

In a statement Tuesday, Nov 15, Petronas said the discovery was made via the Wakid-1 well within Block 2G-2J, about 100km northwest of Kota Kinabalu.

Petronas said preliminary estimates placed reserves at the discovery at 227 million barrels of oil equivalent, with expected upside potential.

News: Petronas FY Net Profit up 50% to USD17.46b, Plans RM 300b CAPEX

Written by Sheikh Al-Zaquan of theedgemalaysia.com
Wednesday, 08 June 2011 19:24

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd reported net profit attributable to shareholders of US$17.46 billion in the financial year ended March 31, 2011 (FY11), which was a 50% increase from the US$11.64 billion in FY10.

It said on Wednesday, June 8 that revenue increased to US$76.82 billion, up 26.1% from US$60.92 billion. (The US dollar was used because it was the oil corporation's functional currency after being translated from ringgit Malaysia.)

President and CEO Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas said Petronas will be spending RM300 billion in capital expenditure for the next five years, this was an upward revision from the RM250 billion mentioned a few months ago.