Malaysia’s Petronas cautious on 2017 even as quarterly profit doubles

July 15, 2017

Dateline 2017-06-02, Reuters:

Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd said on Friday quarterly profit more than doubled
from a year ago, helped by higher margins and a recovery in oil prices, but the state-owned energy firm maintained a cautious outlook for the rest of the year.
First-quarter profit at Petronas [PETR.UL], as the company is known, totalled 10.3 billion ringgit ($2.41 billion),
compared with 4.6 billion ringgit in the corresponding quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ending in March rose 25 percent from a year ago to 61.6 billion ringgit.
“The group continues to maintain a conservative outlook for the remainder of 2017 despite the positive results as supply and demand balances are still slow to return to a sustained equilibrium,” Petronas said in a statement, adding it will keep its focus on cost cuts and improving efficiency.

…

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

THE HOLE IN PETRONAS: Slide in index shows BN ineffective in governing our resources

June 21, 2013

Dateline 2013-05-30, Malaysian Chronicle:

Malaysia fares worse than Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Iraq in the latest Resource Governance Index published by Revenue Watch Institute.

Malaysia ranks 34th out of 58 countries with a score of 46 out of 100 in Resource Governance Index (RGI) published on 8 May 2013 by Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), a non-profit organization that promotes effective, transparent and accountable management of natural resources. Malaysia is categorized as ‘weak’ among the four standards of governance – satisfactory, partial, weak and failing while our neighboring countries Indonesia and Philippine are categorized as partial with better rank of 14th and 23rd respectively. We also tail behind 8 African countries – Ghana (15th), Liberia (16th), Zambia (17th), Morocco (25th), Tanzania (27th), Botswana (30th), Gabon (32nd) and Guinea (33rd) as well as countries like Indonesia Kazakhstan (19th), Venezuela (20th), Azerbajian (28th) and Iraq (29th).

…

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

SIRIM – INVITATION FOR A NETWORKING SESSION AND BUSINESS PRESENTATION WITH INDUSTRIES

October 13, 2012

Just passing the message along.

” We would like to inform that we are organizing a complimentary half-day Networking Session and Business Presentation with Industries on 22 OCT 2012 at Awana Kijal Golf Beach Spa Resort. Therefore, we would like to invite you and/or your representatives to attend the event as follows :

  • DATE : MONDAY 22 OCT 2012
  • TIME : 0900-1130AM
  • VENUE : AWANA KIJAL GOLF BEACH SPA RESORT, KIJAL, KEMAMAN, TERENGGANU
  • TENTATIVE AGENDA :
  1. OPENING REMARKS
  2. SIRIM TRAINING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
  3. REFRESHMENT & END

More info? Read the attachment.

Invitation Letter

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

Iran VLCC unloads fuel oil into FSU off Malaysia as Tehran seeks alternative storages

October 10, 2012

Dateline 2012-09-19:

An Iranian tanker has discharged 270,000 mt of fuel oil into a floating storage unit at Malaysia’s Tanjung Pelepas port this week, barely two weeks after another Iranian ship unloaded crude into an FSU near Labuan Island, off East Malaysia’s Sabah state, industry sources said Wednesday.

With international sanctions imposed on Tehran limiting its usual export outlets, the Islamic Republic is seeking to park its oil elsewhere so as to evade the shipping insurance ban imposed on international commercial vessels calling at Iranian ports to load oil.

By moving its oil to storages outside Iran, the country is also trying to free up its tankers so that these vessels could be used for delivering cargoes to its customers as well as store the crude it produces.

A shipping source with knowledge of the matter said, the Pioneer, a 2007-built VLCC owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company and previously known as Hadi, had discharged Monday nearly 270,000 mt of fuel oil into the Hercules, a VLCC converted into a floating storage unit, off Malaysia’s southern state of Johor.

…

 

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

From Reuters – Malaysia? No Gas!

February 7, 2010

Taken from Reuters, dateline 2010-02-04:

Malaysia, looking to attract foreign investment, vowed to allocate more of its natural gas output to manufacturers but said it could not provide gas to companies starting new businesses in the Southeast Asian country.

International Trade and Industries Minister Mustapa Mohamad said on Thursday that 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, or 5 percent of daily output, would be redistributed to non-power industries until 2011.

There goes my dreams of taking Synergy into the manufacturing industry, sigh… maybe I should hook up some plumbing to the business end of cows, and market that as ‘Malaysia’s gas lifesaver!’. I wonder how much methane they produce? Or should I focus on karibau?

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

Cheaper RON95 petrol by Mid-Year

January 9, 2009

Taken from the New Straits Times, Malaysia, dateline 2008-01-09

KUALA LUMPUR: RON95 petrol will be introduced by the middle of this year to provide a cheaper fuel option for the masses.
At the same time, a higher tax will be levied on RON97 to subsidise RON95.

This was revealed by Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad. A chart on how the retail price of petrol is determined will be provided to the public next week.

The chart will help answer queries and explain how the pricing mechanism works.

RON95, although of a higher grade than RON92, will be priced at the same level as RON92.
Shahrir explained that RON95 was a basic grade of petrol which could be used by virtually all vehicles with the exception of some luxury cars.

“We will introduce RON95 by June or July. RON95 is about 10 sen to 11 sen cheaper than RON97. RON92 is currently priced at RM1.70. We will price RON95 at about the same,” he said after launching the Tesco-RHB Credit Card and Tesco-RHB Debit cards in Tesco Ampang yesterday.

Shahrir said the pricing of RON95 would be based on the Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM). Prior to this, there was no price crisis and there was no need to explain on how the mechanism worked, he said.

The pricing of petrol at kiosks is based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), a regional fuel price monitor.

“Should the MOPS price go below US$40 (RM142) a barrel then retail fuel price will fall. If MOPS is above US$78 per barrel, retail fuel price will increase,” he said.

6 Comments | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Malaysia Gas Prices – Compare against US Prices

October 30, 2008

Hah, I found an almost mindless way to compare US pump prices to Malaysian pump prices.

  1. Go to gasbuddy.com to get a US pump price. For example, on the 28th of September, 2008, the average price was 2.624/gallon. BTW, the price one month ago was 3.619/gallon.
  2. Go to google.com, and type “convert 2.624 dollars per gallon to ringgit per liter,” or whatever the US gallon price is. In this case, the price is equivalent to about RM2.48/liter. This should work for any currency and volume, ex 7,434 Rupiah/liter. Haven’t tried out kolah and ‘tin minyak tanah’ yet.
  3. Compare to the Malaysian gas price of RM2.30/liter.

I guess someone will create a Java / AJAX script to link all this up, and alow me to make it an applet on my page?

7 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Proton Malaysia – why no hybrid car?

March 28, 2008

Let’s start with some prices. Looking at Honda Malaysia:

  • RM162.8k for a 1.3l hybrid Civic.
  • RM 113.8k for a 1.8s normal Civic.

Apparently, a hybrid is a CBU (completely built up unit), fully imported, which has a higher tax then the CKU (completely knocked down), assembled in Malaysia, normal Civic, in addition to whatever actual cost difference between the two.

Now, in the current regime of crude oil prices north of USD100, why doesn’t Proton get onto the bandwagon, and start developing hybrid cars? Once you get over the capital cost of purchasing a hybrid (and make no mistake, there will be a premium), then we can start reaping the benefits of better fuel efficiency, less smog in Kuala Lumpur’s daily traffic jams, and goodwill from having the national car manufacturer heading green. And possibly think of reducing Malaysia’s oil subsidy.

A look at Proton’s press releases reveals:

  • ‘EVE HYBRID’ TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR SHOWCASES RETRO-INTEGRATION OF HYBRID SOLUTIONS (06/03/2007)
  • GEN2 GETS A FACELIFT AND NEW ENGINE (03/03/2008)

So, Proton could have implemented hybrid technology probably by this year, but we have yet to see any commercial models, of which the latest launch was in April 2008. Why is that, I ask? Anyone have any info?

4 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Article ‘Kenapa BN Mahu Sangat Rampas Kelantan’ – Take 2

March 21, 2008

Continuing my expansion of the above article, I thought I would list down the operators and comments of the acreage listed.

  • Blok A18 – as the original author says, the acreage is operated by the Carigali Hess Operating Company (CHOCas its known to friends). It’s located in the Malaysia Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA)
  • Blok B17 – the PSC for this area is PETRONAS Carigali (JDA) Sdn Bhd, also in the JDA.
  • Block C19 – the PSC for this area is Carigali-PTTEP International Operating Company (CPOC), also in the JDA.
  • PM3 – operated by Talisman (Malaysia) Ltd.
  • Sub-Blok Ular – operated by PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd (PCSB).
  • PM301 & PM302 – CS Mutiara, though I’m not sure if they have had to relinquish the acerage yet. It’s interesting to note that this aceragetouches the Kelantanese shoreline.
  • PM303 – Shell, PSC awarded in 1999, though yet to produce.
  • PM311 & 312 – joint venture between Murphy Peninsular Malaysia Oil Co Ltdand PCSB, yet to produce.

So, of the fields listed by the author, 3 are in the JDA, one is in Kelantanese waters, and the rest are in Terengganu waters.

It’s interesting to note that we do not have a JDA for disputed resources between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Would that have reduced the amount of hydrocarbons that could be claimed by Sabah and Sarawak?

1 Comment | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Malaysia – An engineer’s take on oil subsidies

March 13, 2008

Since oil subsidies have been a staple ingredient in the media, I thought I would list down some items of discussion with respect to either maintaining or dismantling the current subsidy structure:

  • Subsidies stifle efficiency: With low consumer energy prices, industry might not be willing to develop more efficient technologies that increase efficiency, as there is no financial incentive to do so. Examples of such technologies are inverters to smooth out the start-stop power requirement of equipment such as air conditioners, more efficient lighting technology.
  • Subsidies artificially increase commercial efficiency: If the viability of new manufacturing lines or engineering solutions have a energy cost component, then because energy is cheap, the return on investment would be higher than if energy was factored in at global prices.
  • Malaysian pays for neighbours’ gas: ‘Nuff said.

1 Comment | business opportunity, engineering, investment, Malaysia | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

« Previous Entries