03 September 2008

Petronas One Of The New "Seven Sisters"

On Merdeka Day this year, the New Straits Times published an article penned by Datuk Saw Choo Boon, chairman of Shell Malaysia, entitled "Petronas one of the new 'Seven Sisters'". In it, he lauds the success of our own oil and gas company, Petronas. Here are some notable extracts from the article:


What Petronas has achieved in a mere 34 years is astounding. It must have been daunting for the small group of government secondees, with no experience in the energy industry, to have been given the onerous task of managing the country's energy resources, developing a national oil and gas business and facing the multinationals that have operated in the country for decades.

They had to be courageous and visionary, qualities that have been perpetuated in the Petronas leadership since then.

Equally daunting was the decision to venture overseas, to countries with environments that even multinationals find very difficult. This happened when Petronas set itself the target of achieving 30 per cent of its earnings from international operations in the early 1990s.

Recognising that Malaysia's oil and gas reserves are relatively small and would run out one day, Petronas knew that to continue to exist and grow, it had to take its operations overseas.

Petronas' growth was accelerated as its leaders set out to achieve this target, and achieve it they did. About 40 per cent of its revenue is now generated overseas.

The national oil company now explores in more countries than Shell does. More than one-third of its production now comes from international operations, from over 60 ventures in more than 20 countries, and this will continue to increase into the future.

Datuk Saw alluded to the report by the Financial Times about Malaysia being termed one of the new "Seven Sisters". That article can be found here, along with a host of other resources. No doubt, some of these articles will be fodder for future posts. But for now, let us look at the profile of Petronas at the Financial Times website.

The Financial Times notes that "Petronas, Malaysia’s national oil company, has been described as the role model that other national oil companies would like to follow." Petronas is noted for being "one of the top three exporters of liquefied natural gas," but "has yet to realise its full potential". Among its strengths, is its highly competent staff and the fact that it is "the leading refiner in Asia".

Below are some links that will be of interest:
On 30th August 2008, the Star online reported in an article "Petronas Single Largest Contributor To Govt Coffers":

It (Petronas) gave the Federal Government RM62.4bil and disbursed RM4.8bil in royalties to Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak, bringing the total to RM403.3bil paid to the Government and the relevant state governments.


Congratulations, Petronas!

2 comments:

Shah Jehan said...

Kevin, well done! You have succeeded in painting Petronas in a good light. Rather ironic considering the current petrol and political situation. Anyhow, this is one aspect of Petronas that we can and should be proud of.

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