Petronas plans more overseas undertakings
Petronas plans more overseas undertakings
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's national oil company, Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas), said yesterday it would hunt for further opportunities overseas during the year ahead.
The corporation acquired a 30-percent stake in a South African refiner in June last year, said Petronas president and chief executive Hassan Marican.
It has also sealed an oil exploration and production agreement with Sudan and an exploration deal with Algeria,
"These are upstream activities and in very early stages," Hassan told a news conference after receiving a government invitation to set up a Petronas university.
Hassan did not say how much investment would be involved in the projects.
"It will continue to be a busy year," he said, signaling the corporation's move to expand its global exposure.
Petronas last June spent US$436 million in its biggest foreign investment to date to acquire a 30-percent stake in South Africa's listed oil refiner Engen Ltd.
Hassan said the investment in Engen was starting to pay off and Petronas received $10 million in dividends from Engen last October after the refiner declared its corporate results.
Engen owns and operates the second largest crude oil refinery in South Africa, with a capacity of 105,000 barrels per day.
Using Engen as a vehicle to enter the African market, Hassan said Petronas had invested $10 million in some logistics facilities and storage terminals in Tanzania.
"That has opened up the Tanzanian market for us," Hassan said.
Asked whether Petronas would step up its investments in Africa, he replied: "We will look at it if there is an opportunity."
The corporation aims to bring in about 30 percent of total revenue from overseas by 2005. It plans to spend about 12 billion ringgit by 2000 to develop upstream, downstream, gas and petrochemical industries.
Its international upstream operations include exploration and production activities in Vietnam and exploration in Pakistan, the Philippines and the Middle East.
Petronas, which has extensive natural gas and petrochemical operations, is a major revenue-earner, contributing about 8.7 percent of Malaysia's export earnings.
Malaysia has 4.1 billion barrels of oil reserves and 85.1 trillion standard cubic feet of natural gas reserves.
For the year to March 1995, it posted a net profit of 4.56 billion ringgit ($1.82 billion) and revenue of 17.11 billion ringgit.
However, Hassan declined to forecast Petronas' result for the current financial year.
Petronas Gas stock, which is listed on the local bourse, was unchanged at 10.10 ringgit in late yesterday trade.