O&G players must grow in terms of technology, says MPRC

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Petroleum Resources Corp (MPRC) is pushing for oil and gas (O&G) players to be more innovative in terms of technology in order to be more competitive and to remain sustainable when natural resources are depleted.
Executive director Dr. Shahreen Zainooreen Madros said the majority of O&G service providers are only servicing the local market, despite the sector being a mature industry with an established value chain.
"Eventually when our oil is completely depleted, we hope there is still a services industry in Malaysia to serve the region. The important thing to know is the urgency to develop our services sector. We cannot depend on our natural resource forever because it is a reserve that one day will run out," he told reporters at the launch of MPRC 100 yesterday. MPRC 100 is a list of top 100 O&G companies operating in Malaysia.
In 2010, the O&G sector contributed 20% to the country's revenue, of which 95% came from exploration and production while services contributed less than 5%.
MPRC hopes to grow this to 20%, as set out under the Economic Transformation Programme.
Shahreen said with size, technology and talent, O&G players will be more competitive and have better access to the global market, as it would be difficult to compete in terms of cost.
"Malaysia needs to look at talent, to develop its own indigenous technology. We need to stretch technology ownership," he said.
Although the O&G industry in Malaysia is over 40 years old and currently contributes 16% to revenue, there is only one university namely Universiti Teknologi Petronas, with a full O&G unit while others have very little interface with this industry.
MPRC aims to raise the quantity and quality of the universities to develop more capable talents in order to grow local O&G players, which is one of MPRC's mandates.
Commenting on the impact of low oil price, Shahreen said Malaysia is still attracting a lot of foreign interest, with many parties looking for opportunities here given the depreciating ringgit.
He said that while these investments may not be huge asset investments due to the oil price, companies are actively looking at buying up smaller companies to spread their capabilities.
In terms of investments brought in directly by MPRC, Shahreen said the cumulative amount is some RM5 billion from 2012 till 2014, in terms of committed investments, which will typically take one to two years to be realised.