State oil firm Petronas will award contracts to unlicensed energy services companies to encourage greater competition in the oil and gas industry, The Edge weekly newspaper said citing unidentified sources.
The move would be a departure from the current practice where Petronas only hands out jobs to licensed players in certain segments such as oil and gas equipment makers and offshore support vessel operators, the report said.
The liberalisation measure is aimed at drawing more foreign investment to develop Malaysia as a regional energy hub, it added.
Petronas was not immediately available for comment.
The move would expose local energy services companies such as Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd , Kencana Petroleum and Ramunia Holdings Bhd to competition.
But the change would not apply to the bumiputra vendor programme, where companies controlled by ethnic Malays are given preference under a policy aimed at redistributing national wealth, The Edge said.
