Managing a crisis of national proportions: Petronas speaks up

February 17, 2015

Dateline 2014-11-28, Advertising + Marketing:

Petronas occupies a unique position in the oil and gas industry. Owned by the Malaysian government, it is tasked with the country’s oil and gas resources, and is the national oil and gas company (NOC), apart from also being an international oil and gas company (IOC). The company was recently positioned as the world’s sixth most profitable Fortune 500 company in the oil and gas space.

This renders the communications role for Petronas a high-stakes one, and a relatively complicated one at that. Stakeholder relations is core to its communications, over any other forms.

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Leave a Comment » | Malaysia, oil and gas | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 2015-02-14 – Job Opportunities

February 16, 2015

Happy Happy Week. Buy my recommendations, or through my Amazon store. Or get the Young Turks series (all 4 books). Where are those corporate sponsors? Or throw donations at me.

  • Nothing this week. I hear that the layoffs from the big umbrella contractors is continuing.

Support your local bookshop!  Bookalicious at The Summit Subang is a good choice. I think they focus on trilogies, quadrilogies, and other ologies. Tell them I sent you, and enjoy the look of perplexity on their faces. Those of you who have dropped my name, thanks!

Food choice of the week? How if you visit Vietnam, how about visiting and updating GoHalalVietnam! for your food needs. For your other needs, talk to your local tour guide/ concierge / man on the street.

As crude prices are low, you need all the help you can get to nail that elusive 2k job:

Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security

Leave a Comment » | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Malaysia’s Petronas to Review Spending as Oil Prices Slide

February 15, 2015

Dateline 2014-11-28, WSJ:

Malaysia’s national oil-and-gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas, said Friday it is reviewing its spending plans for next year after reporting a 14% decline in third-quarter net profit on falling crude prices, even as it increased output.

Petronas, the Southeast Asian country’s sole Fortune 500 company and most profitable enterprise, may cut spending between 15% and 20% of its capital expenditure next year, Chief Executive Shamsul Azhar Abbas told reporters at an earnings briefing. The company typically spends 60 billion ringgit to 80 billion ringgit ($17.9 billion to $23.9 billion) each year in expanding its operations.

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Posted by Wata

OPEC, non-OPEC oil producers agree ‘price is not good’

February 14, 2015

Duhh.

Dateline 2014-11-26, FMT:

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez said Tuesday that OPEC members and non-member producers agreed that the price of crude oil “is not good”.

“We agreed that the price is not good. Everybody is worried,” he told reporters after OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met with officials from fellow oil producers Russia and Mexico in Vienna against a backdrop of sliding crude prices.

“We discussed the situation on the market, we shared our points of view and we agreed to keep in contact, and we will meet again in three months,” he added.

The meeting came two days before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was to hold its most significant meeting in recent years to decide on whether to cut the cartel’s oil production to help stabilise tumbling prices.

OPEC pumps out about one-third of the world’s oil while Russia is itself a major producer.

Leave a Comment » | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Wata

China strengthening claim to South China Sea OIL & GAS

February 13, 2015

Dateline 2014-11-26, Malaysian Chronicle:

Not gone and not forgotten, China is ready to solidify its claim to the South China Sea (SCS). Recent satellite imagery confirms China is conducting significant land reclamation operations in the Spratly Islands in the SCS. The SCS is an important fishing ground and is believed to hold large amounts of oil and gas. Undermining the United States’ influence in the region, China intends to play the shepherd in one of the world’s busiest trade routes.

 

SCS Trade Routes

Source: BBC

The Spratly Islands along with the Paracel Islands and several maritime boundaries in the SCS have been hotly disputed for several centuries. The conflict includes Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam and has predominantly centered on historical and cultural claims. Though offering very little in the way of land or resources, the islands serve as a tangible marker. As such, parties to the conflict have been quick to occupy them.

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Leave a Comment » | Malaysia, oil and gas | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Malaysia starts to liberalise domestic gas market

February 12, 2015

Dateline 2014-11-26, Natural Gas Daily:

Already an established force in the LNG export market, Malaysia has started to turn some of its attention inward as it attempts to reform its domestic gas sector by increasing supply competition and phasing out regulated pricing.

State-owned Petronas has been the dominant player in Malaysia’s upstream and downstream sectors for nearly 40 years, but the government is working on amendments to the Gas Supply Act that would allow third-party access to Peninsular Malaysia’s supply infrastructure – including its new LNG terminals.

In addition, the government is planning to phase out regulated gas pricing, eventually leading to fully market-based prices that it hopes will encourage further investment in new supplies and promote greater efficiency.

Both issues are part of Malaysia’s broader ambition to liberalise its domestic gas market, which the government believes is critical to the country’s long-term energy and economic security – despite its ample gas reserves.

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Posted by Wata

IEM Shout Out – Talk on Essential Soft Skills to be A High Performance Engineer

February 11, 2015

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be having a talk on 14th Feb, 2015 by Ir. Low Chew Eow (Rocky). It’ll be at 9:00 am (makan-makan at 8:30) at Wisma IEM.

Very often, we have the perception that technical (hard) skills are the key to become a successful engineer. It is true but the technical skills are not the only ingredient. In fact, soft skills are also essential to become a high performance engineer in the competitive, challenging and dynamic working environment today.

Due to the above mentioned perception, most of the students in university and the engineers in the work place do not pay enough attention to learn the required soft skills.

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Ir. Low Chew Eow (Rocky) graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1990. He has more than 24 years of working experience in various roles.

He is appointed as Industry Advisor of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Faculty of Engineering and Science.

He is currently the Head of Package Equipment Department in Technip Consultant (M) Sdn. Bhd. He is also the Member of Expert Network specializing in Pneumatic Conveying System within the Technip group.

He has presented talks at the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia.

You may register here, and download the form here.

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Posted by Wata

Fuel subsidy to return if crude oil prices soar

February 10, 2015

Reaaally?

Dateline 2014-11-25, Malaysia Reserve:

The government will intervene and re-introduce fuel subsidy if world oil prices rise again, says Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong.

He said the government has not abandoned its three-tiered fuel subsidy mechanism and that the targeted subsidy system for fuel is still being finalised by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism.

Chua’s statement came on the heels of the government’s announcement last Friday that the fuel subsidy for non-premium RON95 petrol and diesel would be abolished on Dec 1 and the fuel would be priced based on the monthly average world price of crude oil on a floating mechanism.

The move coincided with the falling global crude oil prices, which is expected to continue for some time.

Chua said yesterday that the government will remove the floating fuel price for RON97 and imposed the three-tiered subsidy mechanism if the global crude price hits the government’s target price.

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Leave a Comment » | Malaysian election, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 2015-02-07 – Job Opportunities

February 9, 2015

Happy Happy Week. Buy my recommendations, or through my Amazon store. Or get the Young Turks series (all 4 books). Where are those corporate sponsors? Or throw donations at me.

  • Technip wants to move your career forward. There are places in operations, engineering, project services, business support.

Support your local bookshop!  Bookalicious at The Summit Subang is a good choice. I think they focus on trilogies, quadrilogies, and other ologies. Tell them I sent you, and enjoy the look of perplexity on their faces. Those of you who have dropped my name, thanks!

Food choice of the week? How if you visit Vietnam, how about visiting and updating GoHalalVietnam! for your food needs. For your other needs, talk to your local tour guide/ concierge / man on the street.

As crude prices are low, you need all the help you can get to nail that elusive 2k job:

Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security

Leave a Comment » | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

A passion to fuel nation’s O&G industry

February 8, 2015

TAN Sri Dr Ngau Boon Keat is in the Young Turks book series. Enhance your knowledge by throwing money at me now.

Dateline 2014-11-23, NST:

TAN Sri Dr Ngau Boon Keat may have carved his name in the list of Top 40 richest Malaysians, but his legacy in shaping the country’s oil and gas (O&G) industry remains unmentioned in any log.

When the national oil corporation, Petronas, was founded 40 years ago through the establishment of the Petroleum Development Act 1974, the pioneers were faced with the lack of know-how and technology in the sector.

To add to the challenge, there were hardly any local professionals with experience in the O&G sector which the company could hire to help set the path and steer a course.

Things, however, turn in Petronas’ favour when it found Ngau in 1975, the first local O&G engineer to join the company. He was previously an engineer with an oil company in Singapore.

Ngau’s application ended in the hands of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, one of Petronas’ founders. of He was called for an interview and offered the job instantly.

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