
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory, Malaysia
Founded: 1974
Key People:
Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz (President & CEO)
Mohd Bakke Sallen (Chairman)
Employees: 47,669
More About The Manufacturer:[]
In 1974, the Petroleum Development Act was tabled in parliament and approved. PETRONAS was incorporated on 17 August 1974 and Tengku Razaleigh became its inaugural chairman. Initially, Exxon and Shell refused to surrender their concessions and refused to negotiate with PETRONAS. PETRONAS then served a notice to all foreign oil companies that after 1 April 1975, all the foreign oil companies would be operating illegally in Malaysian waters if they do not start negotiations with PETRONAS. After a few rounds of negotiations, foreign oil companies finally surrendered their concessions to PETRONAS. While all other oil-producing states in Malaysia signed the petroleum agreement, Tun Mustapha, the chief minister of Sabah, stubbornly refused to sign the oil agreement, complaining of the meagre 5% oil royalty. Mustapha requested 10 to 20% oil royalty, otherwise, he would threaten to pull Sabah out of Malaysia. Tengku Razaleigh refused to bulge in. The Malaysian federal government then make another deal with Datuk Harris Salleh (who was out of favor with Tun Mustapha) to establish the BERJAYA party and oust Tun Mustapha out of power. However, Harris was reluctant to become the chief minister of Sabah and Fuad Stephens was asked to assume to chief minister post if BERJAYA were to come to power. BERJAYA successfully ousted Tun Mustapha in 1976 Sabah state election. One week after the 1976 air crash which killed the chief minister Fuad Stephens and other five state ministers, Harris signed the oil agreement. With Sabah entering the oil agreement, PETRONAS finally has total control of all oil and gas reserves in Malaysia.
The Seliger field, which came onstream at the end of 1988 and was developed by Esso Production Malaysia, was one of the richest oilfields so far found in Malaysia waters, and further concessions to the majors would encourage exploration of the deeper waters around Malaysia, where unknown reserves could be discovered. Meanwhile, computerized seismography made it both feasible and commercially justifiable to re-explore fields that had been abandoned, or was assumed to be unproductive, over the past century. In 1990, PETRONAS invited foreign companies to re-explore parts of the sea off Sabah and Sarawak on the basis of new surveys using up-to-date techniques.
Late in 1989, the governments of Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma) invited PETRONAS Carigali to take part in joint ventures to explore for oil in their coastal waters. In 1990, a new unit, PETRONAS Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd, was created to take up a 15% interest in a field in Myanmar's waters being explored by Idemitsu Myanmar Oil Exploration Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the Japanese firm Idemitsu Oil Development Co. Ltd., in a production sharing arrangement with Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. Thus began PETRONAS' first oil exploration outside Malaysia. In May 1990, the governments of Malaysia and Thailand settled a long-running dispute over their respective rights to an area of 7,300 square kilometers in the Gulf of Thailand by setting up a joint administrative authority for the area and encouraging a joint oil exploration project by PETRONAS, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, and the US company Triton Oil. In a separate deal, in October 1990, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand arranged with PETRONAS to study the feasibility of transferring natural gas from this jointly administered area, through Malaysia to Thailand, by way of an extension of the pipelines laid for the third stage of the Peninsular Gas Utilisation Project.
In 1996, PETRONAS entered the aromatics market by way of a joint venture that created Aromatics Malaysia Sdn Bhd. It also formed a contract with China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Chevron Overseas Petroleum Ltd. to begin exploration of block 02/31 of the Liaodong Bay area in China. While the Asian economy as a whole suffered from an economic crisis during 1997 and 1998, Malaysia was quick to bounce back due to successful government reforms. From its new headquarters in the PETRONAS Twin Towers, the state-owned concern continued its development in the oil and gas industry. Soon India's Liberty Group purchased a 1% stake in Petronas
During 1997, PETRONAS heightened its diversification efforts. The firm set plans in motion to build three petrochemical plants in Kuantan as well as an acetic facility in Kerteh. Its first LPG joint venture in China was launched that year and the company acquired a 29.3% interest in Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad (MISC). In 1998, PETRONAS' tanker-related subsidiary merged with MISC, increasing PETRONAS' stake in MISC to 62%. That year, PETRONAS introduced the Petronas E01, the country's first commercial prototype engine. The company also signed a total of five new production sharing contracts (PSCs) in 1998 and 1999 and began oil production in the Sirri field in Iran
.By 2003, Malaysia was set to usurp Algeria as the world's second-largest producer of LNG with the completion of the Malaysia LNG Tiga Plant. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad commented on the achievement in a May 2003 Bernama News Agency article, claiming that "the PETRONAS LNG complex now serves as another shining example of a vision realized of national aspiration, transformed into reality by the same belief among Malaysians that 'we can do it.'" Indeed, PETRONAS had transformed itself into a global oil company over the previous decade, becoming a national symbol for success. The company realized, however, that it would have to continue its aggressive growth strategy to ensure its survival in the years to come.
In 2004, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, stated that PETRONAS contributed RM 25 Billion to the country's treasury accounting for 25% of revenue collected via dividends and other revenues. PETRONAS continuously provides the Malaysian government dividends from its profits. Since inception in 1974, PETRONAS have paid the government RM 403.3 billion, with RM 67.6 billion in 2008. The payment represents 44% of the 2008 federal government revenue. PETRONAS continues to focus on international exploration projects as 40% of revenue in 2008 was derived from international projects such as Iran, Sudan, Chad, and Mauritania. The company's international reserves stood at 6.24 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2008. On 9 April 2019, PETRONAS was praised for its role in the Sudanese oil and gas industry by Minister of Oil and Gas engineer Yagoub Adam Bashir Gamaa.
On 29 October 2012, PETRONAS sources said it will renew a bid for gas producer Progress Energy Resources after Canada blocked its bid earlier that month. The $6-billion bid was approved by Ottawa on 7 December 2012.
On 17 January 2013, PETRONAS issued a statement that an onshore oil and gas discovery has been made in the state after drilling a test well about 20 kilometres away from the city of Miri in northern Sarawak. The well was found to have a net hydrocarbon thickness of 349 meters. It had flow rates of 440 barrels of crude oil per day and 11.5 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The find is the first onshore oil discovery in Malaysia in 24 years.
On 2 May 2015, PETRONAS completed its acquisition of oil and gas assets in Azerbaijan from Norway’s Statoil (now Equinor) for US$2.25 billion.
On 1 April 2017, PETRONAS' PFLNG SATU, is the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, has achieved a new milestone with the successful loading of its first cargo at the Kanowit gas field, offshore Bintulu, Sarawak. On 25 July 2017, PETRONAS canceled a $36-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, the Pacific Northwest LNG, which was considered ambitious and a priority in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Both the company and the province blamed poor global LNG market conditions. Today PETRONAS is definitely a part of iRacing's fuel supply of the F1 and GT3 cars, most notably, those cars in the field that sport the PETRONAS paint scheme.
On 25 July 2017, Petronas cancelled a $36-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, the Pacific Northwest LNG, which was considered ambitious and a priority in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Both the company and the province blamed poor global LNG market conditions.
In September 2022, the heirs asked the Hague Court of Appeal to recognize and enforce the award in the Netherlands, and allow them to seize Malaysian assets to this end. They attempted to do the same in France and Luxembourg.
In January 2023, a Luxembourg court reportedly set aside the heirs’ request to enforce the $15 billion arbitration award. However, shortly after, a Luxembourg district court issued new orders to seize holdings and assets belonging to Petronas in mid-February. Petronas has two holding companies in Luxembourg called Petronas Azerbaijan and Petronas South Caucasus which are related to the state-owned oil company's activities around the Caspian sea. Petronas confirmed the new seizure order for the two units and their parent company, but reiterated the heirs' actions were baseless and that the company will continue to defend its legal position.
On 14 March, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled that Sulu claimants’ challenge to a stay order filed by Malaysia last year was “inadmissible”. The court handed another “decisive victory” to Malaysia on 4 June, when it found that the arbitral tribunal that had heard the petition filed by the Sulu heirs did not have jurisdiction over the case. According to the Malaysian Law Minister, this judgment implied that the Paris Court of Appeal will also annual the $14.9 billion award handed down earlier. On the other hand, the claimants said they would now consider their options before the French Supreme Court.
On 27 June, Malaysia won another legal victory, with the Hague Court of Appeal dismissing a bid to enforce the $15 billion award. According to Reuters, the Dutch judges sided with Malaysia, saying the original pact lacked a clause binding parties to arbitration and the French stay meant the claim was not enforceable in the Netherlands. While lawyer Paul Cohen, acting for the Sulu heirs, said they were disappointed with the court decision, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, welcomed the decision, stating, “Malaysia trusts that today’s decision ... will put an end to the frivolous attempts of the claimants to enforce the purported final award in other jurisdiction”.
On 8 January 2023, it was announced that Gonzalo Stampa, the Spanish arbitrator who had awarded the arbitral sum against Malaysia, had been convicted of contempt of court for “knowingly disobeying rulings and orders from the Madrid High Court of Justice”, and sentenced to six months in prison.
According to Law360, the Spanish courts’ decision to move ahead with criminal proceedings against Stampa is a significant “victory for the Malaysian government”.
PETRONAS was one of the main sponsors of the BMW Sauber Formula One team alongside Intel, and supplied lubricants and fuel to the team. It also owned 40% of Sauber PETRONAS Engineering, the company that builds chassis which formerly used Ferrari designed engines used by the Sauber team, until being bought out by German motor company BMW. PETRONAS was also the main sponsor for the Malaysian Grand Prix, and co-sponsored the Chinese Grand Prix, and the inaugural Korean Grand Prix. PETRONAS was the exclusive premium partner of the Sauber PETRONAS (1995–2005) and BMW Sauber (2006–2009) F1 teams. BMW had acquired the controlling stake of the former Sauber PETRONAS Engineering, but left the sport after the 2009 season. On 21 December 2009, PETRONAS was confirmed as moving from BMW Sauber to the newly formed Mercedes AMG PETRONAS Formula One team. In terms of further Formula One involvement, every year PETRONAS took the BMW Sauber team to various parts of Malaysia for F1 demos, so the public who are unable to go to the track itself get to experience a little bit of what F1 offers. Other promotional events are held in the run up to the race and the drivers play an integral part in this so much so that Nick Heidfeld conceded that there were more fans for BMW Sauber in Malaysia than in most other countries.
PETRONAS also sponsors many other sporting events and teams, mostly motorsports. Some of these sponsorships include the PERT (PETRONAS EON Rally Team), and also the PETRONAS Adventure Team, a 4X4 adventure team. More recently PETRONAS was also a major sponsor for PETRONAS TOYOTA TEAM TOM'S which was participating in Super GT series, which they won the team title in 2008 and driver title in 2009. The series also raced in Malaysia every season at Sepang International Circuit between 2005 and 2013. PETRONAS signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with Yamaha MotoGP team. The PETRONAS branding can be seen starting Qatar race on the 10 to 12 April 2009. PETRONAS also sponsors all Mercedes-AMG DTM cars from the 2011 season until Mercedes' DTM exit in 2018 (replacing Mobil 1) for only providing the lubricants.
Since 2010, PETRONAS has been the main sponsor of the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 team. Mercedes have won eight straight Constructors' Championship titles and 7 Drivers' Championship titles from the beginning of the 1.6 liter (97.6 cu in) turbocharged V6 engine era in 2014 until 2021. Since 2014, PETRONAS has also been supplying fuel and lubricants for Mercedes-AMG customer teams, including Force India (from 2014) (now known as Aston Martin, along with Ravenol from 2018 season for lubricants only), Lotus for 2015, Manor for 2016, Williams from 2017 and McLaren from 2021. In addition PETRONAS also supplies fuels and lubricants for Honda-powered Red Bull-owned Italian team Scuderia Toro Rosso, known as Scuderia AlphaTauri since the 2018 season. PETRONAS' title and technical partnership with Mercedes is extended from the 2026 season onwards.