Malaysia’s Petronas plans to boost exploration, deepwater development, and enhanced oil recovery over the next three years as it looks to maintain its domestic oil and gas production stable at about 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), the state energy giant said in its 2026-2028 activity outlook on Thursday.
As energy security has become paramount, Petronas will focus in the upstream on revitalizing Malaysia’s exploration and production landscape to strengthen domestic energy security.
“This includes intensifying exploration in new and mature areas, accelerating appraisal of recent discoveries, and ensuring timely maturation of resources to sustain base production,” the company said.
Key projects such as Belud, Kurma Manis, and Sepat will play a pivotal role in meeting production targets, it noted.
Petronas also aims to reshape its upstream operations “to remain competitive in a low-price environment, ensuring projects deliver positive -returns even under challenging market conditions.”
According to the company, financial discipline, accelerated cash generation, and capital efficiency will be key priorities in delivering low-cost, lower-carbon, and high-margin barrels.
Petronas noted that Malaysia’s energy industry is undergoing systemic change amid a decline in resources, which challenges production rates. Moreover, LNG operations face rising cost pressures and increasing customer demand for cleaner shipping solutions amidst growing competition, necessitating continued improvements in efficiency and reliability, the Malaysian state energy firm said.
At the end of last year, Petronas combined its upstream assets in Indonesia and Malaysia with Italy’s energy giant Eni in a new, equally-owned joint venture.
The newly-created company, which will operate as a separate self-sufficient financial entity, plans to invest $15 billion over the next five years. The investment will support the development of at least eight new projects and the drilling of 15 exploration wells, with the aim of developing about 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of discovered reserves in Indonesia and Malaysia.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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