MIDA targets more investors for Malaysia's oil and gas sector

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) targets to attract more foreign investors to the country's oil and gas (O&G) sector on the bid to turn the country into Asia Pacific's O&G hub by 2017.

Chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud said: "Today alone we are meeting about seven potential investors mainly from the US and Europe.

While decline to disclose the potential investors, he noted that the seven potential investors spread over the existing and new player in the O&G industry in Malaysia.

In 2013, Azman said MIDA approved about RM7.05bil of foreign direct investment into the O&G sector, involving 13 projects such as petrochemical, engineering and services.

"We hope to continue bringing more players into this industry. The Pengerang project in Johor could span over RM170mil investment over the time," he said.

It was reported that Pengerang had about RM69bil of projects in the pipeline.

Azman was speaking to reporters after the country session on Malaysia as a regional O&G hub at the 2014 offshore technology conference Asia on Thursday.

The country session featured panelists from Technip, Petrofac, Honeywell Process Solutions and Sapurakencana Petroleum Bhd.