KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Moody’s Investors Service expects Petronas to become the biggest beneficiary of the resumption of oil exports from south Sudan through pipelines in Sudan owing to Sudanese operations being a larger contributor to overall production.
Petronas jointly owned a production facility in south Sudan which was shut down for most of last year due to the dispute between neighbouring countries, together with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp of India (ONCG) and Sudan’s national oil company, Sudapet.
Moody’s Vice-President and Senior Analyst Simon Wong said crude production in Sudan and south Sudan accounted for about seven per cent Petronas’ total hydrocarbon production in 2011 while the area accounted for less than four per cent of ONGC’s and CNPC’s total production.
“The successful resumption of production could see Petronas’ production increase by about 120,000 barrels per day.
“Its production in Sudan was reduced by over 84 per cent to 23,000 from 147,000 last year,” he said in a statement today.
Sudan and south Sudan signed an agreement last Tuesday to restart oil exports, setting a two-week deadline to resume the process of sending oil from landlocked south Sudan through pipelines in Sudan.
Petronas, CNPC and ONCG each hold 30 per cent, 40 per cent and 25 per cent stake, respectively, in the south Sudan’s production facility while the rest was owned by Sudapet.
However, Moody’s said Petronas President and Chief Executive Officer Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas anticipates that there could be a five to six-month lag from the time production in Sudan resumes before crude exports restart.
“As a result, we do not expect a material cashflow contribution from south Sudan until 2014,” it said.
The lost production in Sudan, coupled with an impairment charge taken on gas assets in Egypt, contributed to a 14 per cent decline in Petronas’ net profit to RM59 billion last year. — Bernama
