Petronas’ 2015 dividend to be slightly lower

PUTRAJAYA: Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas) dividend commitment for 2015 has been revised downwards slightly, said Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah.
"It will be announced by Petronas, we will wait and see. It's already decided," he told reporters yesterday.
Irwan said oil price hit a peak of US$115 per barrel in June last year before declining late October, November and December, thus Petronas' overall profit is still intact as the impact was only in the last quarter.
"So overall, we don't see much of a drop in the dividend from Petronas.," he added.
Last year, Petronas said it is looking to cut capital expenditure (capex) for new projects in 2015 by 15% to 20% and indicated a reduction in dividend and tax to the government due to low oil prices.
The group had earlier said the RM300 billion capex for 2011 till 2015, or RM60 billion per year, was made based on assumption of oil price at US$80 per barrel.
Its president and CEO Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas had said that it plans to reduce dividend and tax to the government to RM17 billion each while oil and gas royalty may be reduced to RM9 billion if oil prices remained between US$70 and US$75 per barrel.
Global oil prices have since dropped to below US$50 per barrel and analysts have projected oil prices to range between US$40 and US$70 per barrel.
According to Irwan, contribution from oil- related revenue under the adjusted budget has been reduced to 21% from 26% previously.
"If you look at the share of export, 76.6% is manufactured products and crude oil only accounts for 4.5%.
"If you look at the whole economy, in the third quarter of 2014, we have a diverse economy. The growth of other sectors like construction and other services sector are quite high and the growth is driven by manufacturing and services sector.

"If you look in terms of share, mining is only about 7%. So it is a diversified economy. We are not totally dependent on oil or mining sector," he said.