THERE is light at the end of the tunnel for Malaysia’s upstream sector. A new strategy and string of reforms look set to revive the mature oil and gas producer’s fortunes.
A new dawn has broken. Big gas finds are becomingly increasingly common, international oil companies (IOCs) are returning to explore deep-water frontier areas and several deep-sea projects are due on-stream in the next four years. Elsewhere, independents are lining up to tap marginal field opportunities and overlooked shallow-water prospects.
Petronas' executive vice-president, exploration and production, Wee Yiaw Hin, who joined the firm some 18 months ago after a long career at Shell, admits that the national oil company (NOC) has not moved fast enough over the past three to four years to arrest declining oil production. Petronas has accelerated a decisive three-pronged strategy to address the problems.
The NOC is now firmly focused on boosting exploration across...