KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has never made any losses in any commercial ventures that the national oil company has embarked upon, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
In his written reply at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday to Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh Timur-DAP), who had asked Petronas to list out five projects in which it had suffered major losses, also said Petronas had also undertaken non-commercial projects aimed at boosting nation-building.
Among such projects is Universiti Technologi Petronas (UTP) in Tronoh, Perak, which was established in 1997 specialising in engineering and information technology. The university incurs an operation cost of RM150 million per year and has produced 3,400 graduates to date.
Petronas had also established the Institut Teknologi Petroleum Petronas (INSTEP) in Bukit Rakit, Terengganu where it trains technicians for the oil and gas sector. Established in 1983, it has an annual operation cost of RM80 million.
Its other project is Petronas NGV Sdn Bhd, which owns 90 stations with NGV facilities and has plans to increase the number of stations to 200 by 2010. Established in 1992, the NGV is sold at 68 sen per litre and Petronas has forked out RM500 million in subsidies.
To another question by Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang-DAP), Abdullah said the national oil reserve on Jan 1, 2007 was at 5.4 billion barrel, with an average output of 666,000 barrels per day for the financial year ended March 31, 2007. The Malaysian crude oil was priced at US$68.50 per barrel in the same financial year.
Source : The Edge
