By Tanu Pandey
KUALA LUMPUR: Marred by higher operating costs and impairment losses
on plants and equipment, Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) net profit
for the last quarter ended Dec 31, 2012, tanked at 45% to RM8.7 billion
year-on-year.
The state-owned oil company is now prepared to focus on domestic
production after having expanded its oil production and exploration
presence globally for many years.
For the entire 2012 fiscal year, it posted a 14% dip in net profit to
RM59 billion compared with RM68.6 billion in 2011, Petronas announced
in its financial report yesterday.
“The global oil industry has been affected and Petronas certainly has
also been affected,” Petronas’ president and CEO Shamsul Azhar Abbas
told reporters when announcing the results yesterday.
Petronas and its partners were forced by the South Sudan government
to shut down oil production at Thar Jath field in Unity state amid a
dispute with its northern neighbour Sudan over transportation fees for
its exports. The loss due to this was about 120,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day production.
