Tan Sri Hassan Marican, Presiden and CEO of PetronasFrom: NST Online
2008/06/18
By Marc Lourdes and David Yeow news@nst.com.
KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas should not be made the scapegoat for the fuel price hike, said its president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Hassan Marican. "It is a global problem and not the oil company's fault that prices have increased." Hassan said Petronas employees were being verbally attacked for the price increase and urged Malaysians to remain calm and look at the bigger picture. He explained that 65 per cent of Petronas' profits went straight to the government.
Petronas was formed in 1974 with an initial capital of RM10 million.
"From then until the end of 2007, it has made RM570 billion. RM336 billion had been paid to the government in that time," he said, adding that the remainder of the company's money was reinvested in exploration and building refineries, among others He also pointed out that the company has 300,000 employees, stressing that it "does not just take but gives back as well".
"While in the past we have paid more, doing so now would hinder our efforts to discover new oil reserves in other parts of the world," he said, adding that 30 per cent of its oil reserves were overseas. "We are trying to extend Malaysia's status as a nett oil exporter for as long as we can. By increasing our payment (to the government), we might not be able to delay becoming a nett oil importer past 2014," he said during an interview on RTM last night. He added that the company had to think of the future and if Petronas' explorations pan-ned out, Malaysia could maintain the same rate of production for another 22 years.
On whether Petronas should be held accountable to Parliament and not just the prime minister, Hassan said that was up to Parliament to decide. He said under the Petroleum Development Act 1974, the national oil company was accountable to the prime minister of the day.
"That's not for me to say. The Petroleum Development Act was passed by Parliament." He said Petronas operated under the Companies Act 1965 and, as required by the act, published a financial report every year.
Hassan was also asked why oil prices in Malaysia could not be kept as low as other oil-rich countries like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Brunei. He said Malaysia, with a population of about 24 million people, had a daily production of 700,000 barrels compared with Saudi Arabia's 10 million barrels with the same population size. "Not only is oil cheap there, so are water and electricity. They can afford it because production is so high.
"Venezuela adopts a populist policy and because of that, there has been no new investment. Their production has dropped from four million barrels a day to 2.5 million."
Petronas and its subsidiary Petronas Carigali accounts for about 75 per cent of the national oil production. The rest is obtained by production- sharing operators. Hassan also said oil prices were increasing globally because of various factors, including speculation, the geo-political scene and increased demand from the developing economies of China and India. He pointed out that in 2006, there were seven million new vehicles in China. "If each vehicle used 10 litres of petrol a day, that is a daily increase of 70 million litres
2008/06/18
By Marc Lourdes and David Yeow news@nst.com.
KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas should not be made the scapegoat for the fuel price hike, said its president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Hassan Marican. "It is a global problem and not the oil company's fault that prices have increased." Hassan said Petronas employees were being verbally attacked for the price increase and urged Malaysians to remain calm and look at the bigger picture. He explained that 65 per cent of Petronas' profits went straight to the government.
Petronas was formed in 1974 with an initial capital of RM10 million.
"From then until the end of 2007, it has made RM570 billion. RM336 billion had been paid to the government in that time," he said, adding that the remainder of the company's money was reinvested in exploration and building refineries, among others He also pointed out that the company has 300,000 employees, stressing that it "does not just take but gives back as well".
"While in the past we have paid more, doing so now would hinder our efforts to discover new oil reserves in other parts of the world," he said, adding that 30 per cent of its oil reserves were overseas. "We are trying to extend Malaysia's status as a nett oil exporter for as long as we can. By increasing our payment (to the government), we might not be able to delay becoming a nett oil importer past 2014," he said during an interview on RTM last night. He added that the company had to think of the future and if Petronas' explorations pan-ned out, Malaysia could maintain the same rate of production for another 22 years.
On whether Petronas should be held accountable to Parliament and not just the prime minister, Hassan said that was up to Parliament to decide. He said under the Petroleum Development Act 1974, the national oil company was accountable to the prime minister of the day.
"That's not for me to say. The Petroleum Development Act was passed by Parliament." He said Petronas operated under the Companies Act 1965 and, as required by the act, published a financial report every year.
Hassan was also asked why oil prices in Malaysia could not be kept as low as other oil-rich countries like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Brunei. He said Malaysia, with a population of about 24 million people, had a daily production of 700,000 barrels compared with Saudi Arabia's 10 million barrels with the same population size. "Not only is oil cheap there, so are water and electricity. They can afford it because production is so high.
"Venezuela adopts a populist policy and because of that, there has been no new investment. Their production has dropped from four million barrels a day to 2.5 million."
Petronas and its subsidiary Petronas Carigali accounts for about 75 per cent of the national oil production. The rest is obtained by production- sharing operators. Hassan also said oil prices were increasing globally because of various factors, including speculation, the geo-political scene and increased demand from the developing economies of China and India. He pointed out that in 2006, there were seven million new vehicles in China. "If each vehicle used 10 litres of petrol a day, that is a daily increase of 70 million litres
1 comment:
Tapi kenapa petronas tak advice Pak Lah agar tak payah naik harga minyak dalam pasaran domistik. Bukankah kini rakyat yang menanggung derita kerana inflasi. Subsisi dalam skim baru ini bukanya semua rakyat berpendapatan rendah yang dapat. Pemilik kenderaan tetap juga menaikkan kos pengangkutan dan harga barang terus juga melambung. Ini tak adil bagi rakyat secara majoriti yang berkerja keras untuk menyara kehidupan.
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