Southeast Asia remains key strategic market for Petronas

KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asia will remain Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) key strategic market to expand its core business while it is also committed to developing its gas assets in Canada and Mexico, said senior vicepresident of Corporate Strategy, Mohamed Firouz Asnan.

He said the company was looking for potential upstream investments, particularly in Myanmar and Indonesia.

“Southeast Asia remains our heartland. This is our backyard. We want to do more in Myanmar and Indonesia.

“As for Malaysia itself, we got plenty of opportunities here,” he said on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference Asia 2018, here, yesterday.

Mohamed Firouz was one of the speakers at the conference.

On Canada, he said Petronas was currently focusing on monetising its assets and looking at expansion beyond the domestic market.

“There are several markets we are looking at. Perhaps at markets in the (same) region, possibly the United States.

“The LNG (liquefied natural gas) is our play, (but) we are looking at all options,” he said.

Canada holds the second largest gas resource in Petronas’ portfolio, after Malaysia.

On another development, Petronas recently won six deepwater exploration acreage in Mexico, positioning the company as the second-largest gross acreage holder in offshore Mexico, with a total of nine blocks.

Further strengthening the company’s presence in West Africa, Petronas had recently signed a farm-out agreement with Australia’s FAR Ltd for a 40 per cent interest in the offshore petroleum licences of Block A2 and A5 located offshore Gambia.