KUALA LUMPUR – TotalEnergies, a global energy supplier company based in France, has stated its commitment to increasing its investment in Malaysia’s upstream oil and gas (O&G) sector, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
In a post on his social media accounts, he said TotalEnergies also plans to continue exploring opportunities in the carbon storage field in Malaysia.
Earlier, Anwar met with TotalEnergies chief executive officer and chairman Patrick Pouyanne on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) special meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The prime minister arrived in Riyadh on Saturday for a three-day working visit, during which he will take part in the three-day WEF special meeting.
“TotalEnergies was established in 1984 in Malaysia and has investments in various sectors in the country including renewable energy, electricity, oil and carbon storage.
“Hopefully, this investment can be realised as soon as possible and trigger an overflow of prosperity for Malaysians, especially in creating more job opportunities and knowledge sharing,” said Anwar, who is also the finance minister.
Recently, TotalEnergies signed an agreement with Sapura Upstream Assets Sdn Bhd (SUA) to acquire its 50% interest in Malaysian independent gas producer and operator SapuraOMV Upstream Sdn (SapuraOMV) for US$530 million (RM2.5 billion), subject to closing adjustments.
SapuraOMV’s main assets are its 40% operated interest in block SK408 and 30% operated interest in block SK310, both located offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.
SapuraOMV also holds interests in exploration licences in Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico, where a discovery was made in 2023 on block 30.
TotalEnergies owns interests in two production sharing contracts (PSCs) in the exploration phase and in June 2023 signed an agreement with Petronas and Mitsui to develop a carbon storage project in Southeast Asia and evaluate several CO2 storage sites in the Malay Basin.
Meanwhile, Anwar said he and the Malaysian delegation also held a round table meeting with more than 50 industry and business leaders from various sectors from all over the world at the WEF special meeting.
Also present at the meeting were Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.
Among the companies that participated in this session were Samsung, Chevron, BrainBox AI, Cisco Systems, OmniBot.ai, TotalEnergies, Lulu Group International, Deutsche Bank, and Saudi Industrial Development Fund.
“I am utilising this space to display priorities, strategic initiatives and the country’s economic and fiscal growth rate, in addition to the existence of trade and investment opportunities.
“This session is important for me and my friends to convince industry leaders to invest in Malaysia, thereby boosting the country’s economic growth and creating high-skilled job opportunities for Malaysians,” he said.
The prime minister noted that many industry and business leaders who attended showed confidence in the country’s economic growth prospects and political stability by expressing interest in investing in Malaysia in various fields.
“I guarantee their investment matters will be simplified and expedited, especially after the government has successfully dealt with the bureaucratic red tape issue that has been going on for a long time before this.
“I believe more high net worth investors will choose Malaysia as an investment destination, following in the footsteps of giant companies such as Tesla, AWS, Infineon and NVIDIA,” said Anwar. – April 29, 2024