KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (Reuters) – Petronas [PETR.UL] paid
out less to the Malaysian government due to lower profits
arising from sluggish production and falling prices.
The state oil company is crucial to Malaysia’s economy as
it provides almost half of the country’s budget revenue through
dividends and taxes at time when the government is struggling
to rein in a budget deficit. Here are some key facts on the
firm that some analysts have called “Malaysia’s golden goose”:
KEY FACTS
* Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petroliam
Nasional Berhad (Petronas) was started up in 1974 as controls
and owns the Southeast Asian country’s oil and gas resources.
* Petronas ranked number 14 among Asia’s top 50 companies,
and 80th globally in Fortune magazine’s Global 500 listings in
2009. It is the only Malaysian company in the rankings.
* It’s company headquarters are in Tower One of the
88-Petronas Twin Towers that was the world’s tallest towers
when completed in more than a decade ago.
* Some credit analysts dub Malaysia as “subsidary of
Petronas” as the oil company’s debt is rated more highly than
the sovereign state. Standard & Poor rates Petronas at
“AA-minus” above its “A-minus” rating for Malaysia.
* In the year to March 2010, Petronas pumped in 57.6
billion ringgit to the Malaysian government in the form of
taxes, dividends and petroleum proceeds.
The payments fell by more than a fifth from a year ago and
was in tandem with weaker production and falling crude oil
prices. For a related table [ID:nSGE66005Q]
KEY BUSINESS
* Overseas expansion in the 1990s turned the national
champion into a multinational. More than 33,400 employees work
in 105 wholly owned and 22 partially owned subsidaries, and 54
associate companies.
* The firm’s total domestic oil and gas production for FY
2010 stood at 1.11 million barrels equivalent per day (bpd),
which represents 68.2 percent of average total national output.
* In the year, the firm’s international oil and gas output
rose 1.7 percent to 640,000 bpd thanks to higher natural gas
production. Africa dominated Petronas’ global output with a
contribution of 57.7 percent.
BOOSTING THE MALAYSIAN STOCK EXCHANGE
* Petronas Dagangan (PETR.KL), Petronas Gas (PGAS.KL), MISC
(MISC.KL) are among the subisdaries already listed on the Kuala
Lumpur Stock Exchange .KLSE.
* Petronas has said it will float petrochemicals operations
in a $2 billion IPO as well as well as its heavy engineering
subsidiary on the domestic bourse to increase liquidity and
lure more investors into Malaysia. [ID:nSGE64H05P]
[ID:nSGE65708D]
HOW DOES PETRONAS FARE AGAINST OIL MAJORS, STATE OIL FIRMS?
Return on Revenue Return on
Assets
(for FY2010 in percentage)
Petronas 31.1 16.4
Average oil majors 21.7 13.4
Average national oil firms 12.1 12.7
(Petronas documents, ThomsonReuters)
(Reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Saeed Azhar)
