The claim that Petronas retained 95% of Sarawak’s oil and gas (O&G) revenue over the past five decades is misleading, as it overlooks key financial flows back to the state, says an industry analyst.
Jamil Ghani said under Malaysia’s production-sharing contracts, at least 70% of project revenues go towards cost recovery, while 10% is shared between the federal and state governments as oil royalties.
“Malaysia’s national O&G regulators, Malaysia Petroleum Management, are very clear on this. Malaysians can check this information for themselves online,” he told FMT.
“At most, Petronas receives only 20% to 30% of the profit made off O&G fields. But even this profit is shared with Petronas’s partners such as Shell, and a portion goes back to Putrajaya through dividends, income taxes, and export duties…