KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will not be pulling out of Vietnam or Canada, as it is still business-as-usual in these two countries for the oil giant.
The Edge Malaysia has quoted Petronas president and CEO Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin saying this, in light of the company's two recent announcements: the first, to abort plans to build a US$27 billion gas facility in British Columbia, Canada; and, the second, that it will return Blocks 1 and 2 at the Cuu Long basin in offshore Vietnam to host authority Vietnam Oil and Gas Group when the 26-year production sharing contract for the blocks expires in September.
The business publication quotes Wan Zulkiflee as saying, "we are definitely not exiting Canada".
The report highlighted Wan Zulkiflee's explaination that it was a matter of the monetisation option not being sanctioned as market conditions were challenging at present.
"We really want to dispel any notion that we are leaving Canada. This is just one option that is not pursued because of economic reasons. Our commitment to Canada remains, we still hold a world-class gas resource that is the second largest to our domestic market: our Malaysian resources,” he is quoted saying.