KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is on the lookout for ways to broaden and expand its customer base for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and sees demand coming from Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South-East Asia nations.
Executive vice-president and chief executive officer (upstream) Datuk Anuar Taib said the national oil company was working towards closing sales and supply deals with some countries around the region as well.
"We see a faster and bigger shift going into gas right now and our role is to deliver an affordable, environmentally friendly source of energy to the consumers," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the 19th Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
Anuar said Petronas had placed its team members in every market with buying potential and the cargo from its pioneer floating LNG facility, the PFLNG Satu, was sent to India.
The PFLNG is an LNG facility, custom-built as a vessel to liquefy, produce, store and offload LNG.
The group is keen to explore opportunities in the Indian LNG market which is the fourth largest in the world and is set to establish a liaison office to help grow the business there.
According to Anuar, LNG prices have dropped from between US$14 and US$15 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in 2014 to between US$6 and US$7.50 per mmBtu now, making it more affordable for countries like Pakistan, Thailand, Bangladesh and India.
Previously, the LNG market was covered by buyers such as Japan, South Korea and also China.
"This is the challenging part for us as the supplier. You have to figure out how to deliver the LNG to the market in a cost-effective manner, so that we will be able to have a profit, as well as keep it affordable to those purchasing," he said.
He pointed out that this called for the company to operate the business via a cost efficienct, cost effective and cost productive manner.
"We have to look at a reduction in our structural costs and do this with specifications in our project, procurement and design.
"We used to have about 220 marine supply vessels in a subsidiary, Petronas Carigali, back in 2012/13. Later on, we invested some RM10 million to install monitoring facilities on all of the vessels.
"By doing this, we are see that the load factor has gone up and have managed to reduce our supply fleet to about 100," Anuar said, adding that Petronas would also be working with service providers to reduce costs.
Malaysia is the world's third largest LNG exporter after Qatar and Australia. - Bernama
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