Deloitte sees strong performance from Petronas this year

Deloitte expects Petronas to continue to exhibit resilience and strong performance this year as it focuses on streamlining its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and downstream business. Deloitte Malaysia's energy and resources leader Nizar Najib said the national oil company, which previously has been focusing on margin based and upstream business, now has leveraged on volume rather than margin. "Which is why Petronas had switch gear to focus on LNG such as Floating LNG1, Floating LNG2 and downstream projects like Pengerang and Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID). "The company is repositioning downstream and divesting its portfolio," he told reporters during Deloitte's Oil and Gas Summit 2015 themed Managing the New Challenges of Oil and Gas projects here today. Nizar pointed out while the companies were seeing a lot of cutbacks in terms of capital expenditure and operating expenditure, oil majors and Petronas were still awarding jobs in certain areas. "We have seen companies such as Uzma (tubing downhole tools), Muhibbah Engineering (RAPID accomodation) and Carimin Petroleum (marine services) benefit from Petronas," he said. He said despite recent quarterly losses, Deloitte was confident Petronas would continue to exhibit the same resilience and strong performance judging from its achievement in recent years. Nizar also said that Petronas was well positioned via its global presence and integrated business. He said Petronas' production has risen in 2013-2014 driven by new discoveries and the addition of unconventional assets to its production portfolio. For more business news, tune in to AWANI Biz on Astro channel 501.