Saturday, March 20, 2010

Petronas hit jackpot, says Ku Li


Petronas may have found the largest oil field in the world, Tengku Razaleigh claims to have been told. — Picture by Jack Ooi

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah today claimed he was told that the national oil company, Petronas, has made a “very big discovery of an oil field, probably the biggest in the world”.

This discovery, he asserted, meant that Petronas would have a very good future. However, the founding chairman of Petronas declined to go into details.

“I was told... no announcement (was) made (about) a very big discovery of oil. I was told there was a big discovery... which could depress the oil price.

“I was also told it is the biggest oil field or oil well (not only) in this part of world but also in any part of the world.

“I cannot disclose the (location)... I cannot tell you,” he said when asked repeatedly about the discovery, which he mentioned in his talk titled, “Oil Royalty: A Constitutional Right?” organised by the Malaysian Bar here today.

He also did not identify who had told him of the developments in Petronas.

Tengku Razaleigh had recently spoken against the federal government’s stand that the Kelantan government had no right to demand royalty for the oil extracted from the state’s offshore area.

Tengku Razaleigh, a former finance minister, said a large oil find means Petronas had a good future but added, it must be properly managed.

“I hope Petronas will be managed well...no leakages, so that money will come back to the people,” he added.

He also said that he was very happy to note that despite Petronas having to spend money for the construction of the Petronas Twin Towers here and the development of Putrajaya, the federal administrative capital, the national oil company “is still in the black, with money and had some reserves left”.

Petronas contributed about RM75 billion annually to the federal government, which is equivalent to about 42 per cent of the country’s revenue.

Since it was founded on Aug 17, 1974, Petronas has grown to be an integrated international oil and gas company with business interests in 31 countries.

Petronas is ranked among Fortune Global 500’s largest corporations in the world. Fortune ranked Petronas as the 95th largest company in the world in 2008 and 80th largest in 2009.

It also ranks Petronas as the eighth most profitable company in the world and the most profitable in Asia.

Oil prices have fallen in the last two weeks by up to 2.8 per cent to below US$80 (RM272) a barrel early yesterday.

London Brent Crude for May fell US$1.60 a barrel to US$79.88. — Bernama

MalaysiaInsider

No comments:

Post a Comment