Malaysia’s Petronas is expected to contribute to government coffers as much as 59 billion ringgit ($13.25 billion) this year, a cabinet minister said in a statement to parliament published Friday. This would be higher than last year on the back of record-high oil prices and its best ever quarterly profit in at least a decade.
Petronas contributions are a significant source of revenue for the federal government, which is expecting to spend a record 77.3 billion ringgit ($17.37 billion) in subsidies and cash aid this year to help the public tackle inflation, reported Reuters.
In 2021, the company contributed 48.2 billion ringgit in dividends, taxes and cash payments to the government, its sole shareholder.
The contribution from Petronas in 2022 is estimated at around 55 to 59 billion ringgit, said minister for economy, Mustapa Mohamed. That includes dividends, taxes, petroleum cash payments, and export duties.
The projections were based on Petronas’ estimates with the assumption that Brent crude oil prices remain at $100.03 a barrel and that production remains uninterrupted throughout the year, he said.
Petronas forecasts a total profit after tax of around 75-80 billion ringgit this year, Mustapa added.
In early June Petronas announced a 154.15% in net profit to 23.44 billion ringgit in the first quarter ended March 31 2022 from 9.22 billion ringgit in the same period in 2021 as operating profit more than doubled following upward trend in prices.
Group quarterly revenue rose 49.87% to 78.75 billion ringgit, from 52.55 billion ringgit, which the national oil company said was predominantly due to price impact for major products, in line with higher benchmark prices.
The last time the Brent average breached the US$100 per barrel was in FY13, when Petronas’ full-year net profit came in at 65.59 billion ringgit, with the highest quarterly net profit recorded that year being 20.37 billion ringgit in Q1 FY13.
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