Imagine how the article would read if it started “Malaysia, as an oil IMPORTING nation…”
Dateline 2011-10-01:
Malaysia, as an oil exporting nation, stands to benefit as oil prices rise up to a certain point where super high oil prices would be more of a drag on the overall economy, said economists.
With oil prices averaging US$90 to US$100 per barrel, oil subsidies by the Government could increase to some RM14bil from RM10.3bil last year. As of Wednesday, Nymex crude oil was trading around the US$104 band.
This subsidy amount of RM14bil is still lower than subsidies in 2008, which amounted to some RM17.6bil.
Hydrocarbon Import and Export
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Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 
Imagine how the article would read if it started “Malaysia, as an oil IMPORTING nation…”
People like you will end up working in factory like the rest of Malaysian…
bamboozled: nah, according to birdz et al, all us oil & gas engineers have money squirreled away somewhere.
Also, as soon as we become an oil importing nation, our cost of labour and production will go up as the cost of energy rises, and we won’t be able to work in factories as the owners will move to cheaper locales with the same quality (do they teach basic economics at school anymore?)
So, it’s the youth of the nation who have the task and responsibility of implementing policies and good ideas to wean us away from a economy based on non-renewable resources.
Where do you stand?
I dont who is this birdz and the rest, but according to the list of of 2011 gazillionaires, top 5 is not in energy business. Even if they do, they are not engineers. My point is, even if you do have numerous amount of money stashed somewhere like the rest of the oil & gas engineers, it will not last forever. You cannot just sit at home and let the stashed money take care of you, your family and your needs. I doubt it.
However i agree with the statement of rising cost in production. But oil is not the ultimatum for everything. There are other factors for selection of manufacturing location like ports and political stability. Other country with no oil resources already manage it just fine. What school are you talking about? Primary? Secondary? The only ‘economics’ you’re gonna find here is ekonomi rumah tangga.
Did you notice how rapid the advancement of computer and communication technology for the past decade? From pentium to core i7, from nokia 3310 to iphone. But look at renewable energy, hybrid/electric cars technology. It is snail compared to IT industry. Why? Because the demand for it is less and no body even bother to promote it in large scale. Why again? To protect the oil company, the government which is funded by oil, oil tycoon, kingdoms of oils, oil wars and not forgetting the oil and gas engineers.
We have our work cut out.
1. Without oil/gas, won’t have a factory (running on fossil fuel).
2. If we are a net importer, like indonesia, the government will go into overdrive and ensure more oil and gas exploration is done to increase the production.
Of course you have your work cut out, good for you. But in case you forgot, the argument here is about “malaysia, as an oil importing nation”.
Based on the CIA world factbook, crude oil production for indonesia, malaysia, thailand and singapore is as follows, 1,023,000, 693,700, 380,000, 10,910 barrel/day. This number can mean anything or nothing at all. But one thing for sure, we are producing more oil than thailand and singapore.
However, thailand GDP (PPP), is much more than us. They are producing much more goods than us, serves as automotive hub in s.e.a, biggest exporter of rice at a fuel price higher than us. According to your statement this doesn’t make sense at all, but the numbers cannot be wrong.
From what i see, we are heavily depending on oil. Without oil we will not go anywhere. As we are not producing anything new for the past decade and future.
Singapore manage to do just fine with virtually no oil because of their talented people and good governance. “the government will go into overdrive”? You got to be kidding me man, where have you be living all this while?
living in Indonesia now. And they are in OVERDRIVE.
Libya also in OVERDRIVE now. That and indonesia doesn’t help malaysia a bit.