Posted on 07/15/2008 4:34:36 AM PDT by Coffee200am
Malaysian state energy firm Petronas on Tuesday announced a record profit of 18.1 billion dollars for 2007-08 and said it is still keen to develop Iran's Pars liquefied natural gas project.
"We have performed quite well. It is another historic set of numbers for Petronas Group," president and chief executive Mohamad Hassan Marican told reporters.
Petronas posted a net profit of 12.9 billion dollars last financial year, which was also an all-time record.
Hassan said Petronas was still pursuing the 2.0-billion-dollar LNG joint venture project in Iran but that it had not completed negotiations with the Iranian government due to rising costs.
"We can't come to a final decision because we need to make an assessment of the price, costs and the viability of the project," he said.
Hassan said Petronas had the resources to participate in the project on its own, after French energy giant Total dropped out of what was supposed to be a three-party development with the Iranian government.
"We are capable and able to undertake the project," he said.
Iran has the world's second-largest reserves of natural gas.
The South Pars field in the Gulf has around 500 trillion cubic feet (14 trillion cubic metres) of gas, which represents about eight percent of world reserves.
Petronas has a 20 percent stake in the Pars LNG production company, which was set up in 2004 to build a liquefaction facility in Iran.
France's Total SA had a 30 percent stake while the National Iranian Gas Export Company holds the remaining 50 percent.
The French firm's chief Christophe de Margerie said earlier this month that it was too politically risky to invest in Iran at present.
Petronas is one of the 7 foreign oil companies that actually did win drilling rights in the North Cuban Basin. But it is not clear when they will actually begin drilling.
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