The Petroleum Development Act of 1974 (PDA) vested PETRONAS with the entire ownership in, and the exclusive rights, powers, liberties and privileges of exploring, exploiting, winning and obtaining petroleum whether onshore or offshore of Malaysia. From a national perspective, PETRONAS’ objectives under PDA is to maximize value of domestic resources and to promote spin-off to the Nation.
Today, the duties and powers conferred to PETRONAS under PDA, as custodian of petroleum resources, is executed by PETRONAS’ Malaysia Petroleum Management also known as MPM. MPM is entrusted with the responsibility of managing and steer the overall E&P activities in Malaysia, including to promote exploration investments and facilitate the development and production activities, whilst protecting the national interest. In addition, MPM role also encompasses the optimization of Malaysia E&P assets and the management of all E&P companies operating in the country.
Being part of the Upstream Business unit in PETRONAS, MPM is fueled by about 400 employees who oversees Malaysia’s upstream activities throughout the E&P life cycle with the coordinated support from critical functions. MPM consist of 6 core departments namely Resource Exploration (REX), Resource Development & Management (RDM), Production & Operations Management (POM), Integrated Hydrocarbon Management (IHM), Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) and Governance & Strategic Relations (GSR) as well as 4 other co-locate departments namely MPM Human Resources, MPM Commercial, MPM Legal and MPM Finance.
As at 1st January 2018 Malaysia’s discovered petroleum resources stood at 18.5 billion boe, representing 9.2% decrease from previous year. Malaysia’s petroleum production level in 2017 stands at 1,794 kboe/d, an increase of 2.1% from 2016 production level. As of December 2018, there are 98 PSCs and 3 RSCs in Malaysia. More than 41 international companies are investing in PSC and RSC in Malaysia, of which 27 different international companies are Operators. Over RM 500 billion has been spent in E&P Upstream industry from 1975 to 2017.
