Malaysia sees lower Petronas payout

Petronas: Malaysian government sees falling income from its petroleum cash cow.

Malaysia sees lower Petronas payout

Petronas is expected to reduce its contribution to the government's coffers by 14% to 19% on lower crude prices this year.

Upstream staff  Thursday, 10 December, 2009, 02:27 GMT

"We suspect the shortfall will come solely from the petroleum income tax portion, down 35% to 19 billion ringgit ($5.6 billion), while dividend distribution will remain at 30 billion ringgit,'' Maybank Investment Bank said in a report cited in the Star newspaper.

Petronas contributes 74 billion ringgit to the government revenue in the financial year 2009. Some 67 billion ringgit of the contribution went to the federal government and another 6.2 billion ringgit to several oil producing states.

Total revenue of the federal government is expected to fall to 148 billion ringgit next year from 162 billion ringgit in 2009, according to the Star newspaper.

The Economic Report 2009/2010 published in October shows the petroleum income tax standing at 27 billion ringgit at an average $103.69 per barrel in 2008.

The government expects the crude price to fall to $65 per barrel this year. Malaysian crude benchmark Tapis blend fetched $60.70 per barrel on average during the first nine months of 2009.