PETRONAS, alleged dubious practices
Petronas is forced to sell to these option holders at a ridiculously low price and the contract is at this low price for many years!
By Dr. Tan Kee Kwong
Let me first acknowledge that Petronas from the point of administration is quite a well run company. Also, it is a GLC ie it belongs to the citizens of Malaysia. Petronas profits have helped sustain the Government expenditure, both capital & recurrent expenditure. In fact, it is said that Petronas contributes about 40% of the annual Government spending.
Real Accounts of Petronas
Few people and citizens realise that the full and true accounts of Petronas are NEVER EVER tabled in Parliament. In fact, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee in 2006, the whole committee (both BN and Opposition MPs) demanded to examine the accounts of Petronas from the then Second Finance Minister.
His meek answer was he was only in charge of the Finance Ministry; Petronas is under the Prime Minister’s Department. I want to ask the present Prime Minister, UMNO and the whole Cabinet, why can’t we get to check and scrutinise Petronas’ accounts? WHY WHY WHY.
As a doctor cocok, the only conclusion that I can reach is, if the Government dares not table the accounts of Petronas in Parliament and be subject to public scrutiny, YOU’VE GOT PLENTY TO HIDE. This state of affairs is totally unacceptable.
A few years ago, I was having a chat with an ex-manager of Petronas. He said “YB Dr., it looks as if you are annoyed and upset with what you know about Petronas. Believe me, I have worked in Petronas for 30 years. If you know what WE know about the inner workings of Petronas and the massive meddling by the politicians, it will give you a fit or a heart attack!”
Option Holders or Middlemen
Many people suspect that there is this dubious practice of Petronas being forced to use option holders or middlemen to sell the crude oil that they produce both locally and overseas. If this is true, why do you need to do this? Why not sell the crude oil in the open market?
Apparently it works like this: Petronas is forced to sell to these option holders at a ridiculously low price and the contract is at this low price for many years! For example, Petronas is contracted to sell the crude oil at say US$40 per barrel. At present, the open market price of Brent crude oil is US$75 per barrel. So the option holder makes US$35 per barrel. Petronas ends up making a small and meager profit. You can imagine how much the option holder made when the crude oil price went up to US100 per barrel. At this rate, the commision is even better than what the Malaysian government paid to purchase the 2 French submarines! And friends, this money is “lost” DAILY. WOW!
So, I challenge the Prime Minister/UMNO/BN/Cabinet to reveal the real, true and whole accounts of Petronas for public scrutiny.
To the Chairman of Petronas I ask
1. Is there a practice of using option holders to help sell your crude oil?
2. If so, why is there a need to use option holders when Petronas can sell the crude oil themselves?
3. If there are really option holders, please reveal who they are, the amount of oil sold to them and for how long?
The public and taxpayers demand to know these answers.
