Source:

October 5, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR — Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has not made any decision to leave Iran although its contract in the Iranian South Pars project has expired, says president/chief executive officer, Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas.

“At this point in time, there are a couple of opportunities to which I don’t think it is the right time for us to leave Iran,” he told reporters after announcing the company’s first-quarter result here Tuesday.

He said this when asked whether Petronas would leave Iran to avoid US sanctions.

Royal Dutch Shell and other international oil companies have ended their operations in Iran to avoid US sanctions aimed at halting its nuclear enrichment programme.

France’s Total, Norway’s Statoil and Italy’s ENI had also announced they would stop their activities to evade the penalties which target companies doing business with Iran.

Japanese oil explorer, Inpex Corp, had also said it would exit the oil field project despite not on the US list targeted for the sanctions.

Shamsul Azhar also said Petronas has no plan to take over Inpex Corp’s stake in Iran’s giant Azadegan oilfield project.

Meanwhile, asked to comment on talks that Petronas wanted to divest its 14.5 per cent stake in Cairn India Ltd, he said: “We have not come to a decision on what to do with our Indian equity.”

He said Petronas was actually looking to review its global expansion overseas and ramp up its domestic operation to focus on the exploration in areas it had neglected before.

“We hope to rationalise and spend more on development than on exploration and bring that into the domestic side.

“So, when you talk about development and production, we are on the lookout for possible acquisitions,” he said.

Petronas would spend about US$2 billion (US$1=RM3.09) on capital expenditure to develop around 50-60 wells under its three-year exploration and production programme domestically.

On the regasification project, Shamsul Azhar said, Petronas expected the plant to be ready by July 2012.

He, however, declined to elaborate.

Petronas Gas Bhd has been comissioned by Petronas to do a study on the project and this was announced by Petronas Gas Bhd’s former chairman Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin on July 22 at the company’s annual general meeting.

– BERNAMA