Petroliam National Bhd (PETRONAS) raised a price-adjustment factor in it Tapis crude oil to 60 cents a barrel in June … last month, the price component was 40 cents a barrel.
PETRONAS Tapis Price
Interesting to note that peninsular malaysia crude is stil called Tapis crude, though Tapis is no longer a major contributor to crude output. Maybe we should call it rojak crude.
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 
As taken from Upstream online Friday 3rd July.
Petronas boss faces political heat
Petronas’ chief executive faces the risk of being ousted from the Malaysian state oil and gas company following a political wrangle involving the country’s Prime Minister.
Allegations have been made that Hassan Marican privately led a revolt against the appointment of a key aide of Prime Minister Najib Razak as a director of Petronas.
A Straits Times report said Najib’s close aides see the rebuff as an act of insubordination.
Najib had wanted Omar Mustapha appointed as a Petronas director, but the board rejected his appointment because the 38-year-old aide had failed to honour a scholarship he received from Petronas, government officials say.
Still, under the Petronas Charter, the board is answerable to the PM, who has sole discretion over all of the firm’s activities, including the appointment of directors and senior management.
“This whole thing has spun out of control,” said a businessman who has close ties to Najib. “It was just a board appointment and no one expected the Petronas board to have reservations.”
Several people close to Najib have said he is being advised to exercise his veto powers over Petronas and decree that the board should carry out his instructions to the letter. Anything less would be viewed as a sign of political weakness.
However, private economists and analysts say a hard-nosed approach to this delicate problem could pose numerous risks.
Petronas officials say privately that the company’s international partners have voiced concern over the future of Hassan and other senior Petronas officials because of the widening public controversy over the face-off.
Rating agencies and international fund managers with Petronas bond holdings are similarly concerned, they say.
There could also be some political fallout for the Najib administration if the country’s powerful civil servants feel his aides are muscling in on their turf.
——————————————————Friday, 03 July, 2009, 03:16 GMT | last updated: Friday, 03 July, 2009, 03:53