Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas reported a fall in its third quarter profit after tax to 1.4 billion ringgit ($319.5 million), impacted by the prolonged low oil price and the global supply glut.
For comparison, the company’s profit in the corresponding period of 2014 was 15.1 billion ringgit ($3.45 billion), 91 pct higher than this year’s 3Q.
The company recorded revenue of RM60 billion ($13.7B) in 3Q, 25% less than in the corresponding period last year.
Production grew 4 percent to 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, boosted by roduction enhancements or new productions mainly from Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Azerbaijan.
Looking ahead, in a statement issued Wednesday, Petronas said it anticipated continued challenges due to the bearish market sentiments, and will continue to focus on internal measures of control to steer the company through the downturn.
“Moving forward, with the outlook on the oil and gas sector still uncertain, we must focus on adapting more prudent approaches to our cash management and materialising internal efficiency measures,” said Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin , the company’s CEO.
Permanent workers’ jobs secure
Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin also said that despite more than 200,000 job cuts announced by the industry globally, Petronas is not shedding jobs of permanent staff, and remains hopeful that the low oil prices will not prolong to a stage where such measures need to be considered. Instead, the company will be reallocating existing manpower across businesses, specifically to man increased downstream activities.
Furthermore, the CEO has called for a quicker consolidation among the Malaysian oil and gas players: “I feel that consolidation among players within the Malaysian oil and gas industry is not happening as quickly as we would like. I hope that our colleagues in the industry will heed this call and internalise that the only way out of this storm is to combine forces and become stronger players.”
Offshore Energy Today Staff