Petrol Malaysia

Dear Reader It's been more than 5 years since Mr. Paul Tan wrote his article " How Fuel Prices Are Calculated in Malaysia ". Other blogs have also covered this issue. To recap, the oil automatic pricing mechanism (applied in Malaysia since 1983 ) was based on the following: Cost of Product - Based on Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) Alpha petrol - 5 sen / liter diesel - 4 sen / liter Operational Cost Peninsular Malaysia - 9.54 sen / liter Sabah - 8.98 sen / liter Sarawak - 8.13 sen / liter Oil Company Margin petrol - 5 sen / liter diesel - 2.25 sen / liter Petrol Dealer Margin petrol - 12.19 sen / liter diesel - 7 sen / liter Sales Tax / Fuel Subsidy petrol - 58.62 sen / liter diesel - 19.64 sen / liter subsidy if price higher than retail price tax if price lower than retail price As we can see, the subsidies are quite substantial compared with the alpha, the margins and the operational costs. PerakToday noted that MOPS is based...

Dear Reader The retail price of RON95 and diesel will be based on a managed float from now on. Here is the press statement for the announcement, which I received from a friend: KENYATAAN AKHBAR PELAKSANAAN PENGAPUNGAN TERKAWAL (MANAGE FLOAT) BAGI PETROL RON95 DAN DIESEL Dimaklumkan bahawa Kerajaan melalui Mesyuarat Jemaah Menteri hari ini telah memutuskan bermula dari 1 Disember 2014, penetapan harga runcit bagi petrol RON95 dan diesel adalah mengikut kaedah pengapungan terkawal (managed float). Kaedah ini adalah sebagaimana pelaksanaan penetapan harga runcit RON97 sedia ada sejak Julai 2010. Harga runcit produk petroleum di Malaysia ditentukan melalui kaedah Automatic Price Mechanism (APM) sejak tahun 1983. Melalui APM, Kerajaan akan menetapkan harga runcit pada satu paras tertentu dimana perubahan kos produk tidak akan mengubah harga runcit. Walau bagaimanapun, melalui pengapungan terkawal (managed float) ini, purata perubahan kos produk akan menentukan penetapan harga bag...

After a long while, I've decided to write a post for this long-neglected blog. One of the topics that we don't talk about much in Malaysia is "peak oil". "Peak oil" is based on the theory formed by M. King Hubbert, a geoscientist who worked at the Shell research lab in Houston, Texas. (Source:  Wikipedia entry on M King Hubbert ) In simple words, "peak oil" refers to that point in time when the production of oil in a certain area starts to decline. The production of oil in that region would follow a bell-shaped curve. (Source: Wikipedia entry on Hubbert peak theory ) In other words, after production has "peaked", it becomes more difficult to produce oil. In other words, the "peak" in peak oil refers to the peak predicted by Hubbert's theory, i.e. the top of the bell-shaped curve. The theory is applicable to resources other than oil. Simply explained, production of oil follows the bell-shaped curve predicted by Hubber...

Dear Reader, Until 2010, Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned petrol company, was helmed by Tan Sri Hassan Marican. After having left Petronas, Tan Sri Hassan was appointed to Singapore's Sembcorp Industries on that same year. Recently, The Malaysian Insider reported that Tan Sri Hassan Marican has been appointed to the board of several Singapore government-linked companies and will be appointed to head Singapore Power Limited (SP) in June this year. KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — Ex-Petronas CEO Tan Sri Hassan Marican is set to become chairman of Singapore Power Limited (SP) in June succeeding Ng Kee Choe who will retire on June 12, according to Energy Asia. The news portal that focuses on the energy industry reported this yesterday, citing the island republic’s utility giant. Marican, who left the national oil company at the beginning of 2010 allegedly due to friction with the Najib administration, has been accepting directorships with several foreign firms in the energy sector. ...

Dear Reader The best business you could start in Miri today, is selling bottled water ! People are desperate for drinking water right now because the drinking water supply has been contaminated by a diesel spill -- 14,000 liters of diesel, to be exact. On the 6th of March 2012, the New Straits Times reported: MIRI: REPORTS of people doing extreme things when they had no water for more than 12 hours on Sunday, due to  diesel contaminating  the city's main source of drinking water, are making the rounds here. "People were using Coke and 7-Up to wash themselves after going to the toilet. One of my friends told me she used 100 Plus to brush her teeth last night," housewife Sue Abdullah said yesterday. ... Assistant Minister for Communication and Senadin assemblyman Datuk Lee Kim Shin, ..., said 300,000 people here were affected by the disruption. Lee added: "It is, however, safe for drinking and cooking." Northern Sarawak Water Board (Laku) general manager Lo...

In 2010, a judge in California, USA, upheld the state's fire marshal's order for the removal of hold-open latch to be removed from nozzles manufactured by Vapor System Technologies LLC. The state's fire marshal, which is affiliated to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, deemed the defective nozzles to be a fire hazard. Apparently, a manufacturing defect in VST's nozzles caused 13 incidents where petrol has been sprayed (at the nozzle) before the nozzle was inserted into the vehicle. This happened because the hold-open latch did not disengage after earlier customers used the petrol pump. The fire marshal's order affected some 3,000 petrol stations in the state of California. The good news was that the fire marshal was working with VST and other petrol nozzle manufacturers to replace the defective VST nozzles with new, safer petrol nozzles with hold-open latches. (At least, that's what the circular dated 23rd August 2010 said.) Customers who were...

Herman Sihas was a petrol station worker, but he was also a selfless hero. Shortly after the new year, Herman Sihas, a petrol pump worker in Sarawak, lost his life while trying to save a drowning form 6 student, Kho Ying Qi. It was a rainy January morning in Kuching when monsoon drains and the river swelled with flood waters. School was called off for the day. Ying Qi's car stalled as she drove in the heavy rain, and she walked to the nearby petrol station to get help. She fell into a monsoon drain, which was heavily flooded. It was then that petrol station worker, who saw the scene, rushed out to her rescue. He jumped into the waters to save Ying Qi, but unfortunately lost his life. Herman's body was found two days later. Ying Qi's body was found more than two weeks later. Herman Sihas was a Bidayuh Salako. He grew up with his family in Kampung Jangkar, Lundu, and obtained his secondary school education in Peninsular Malaysia. He returned to Sarawak several years ag...