KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Gas Bhd (PGB) has opened its gas transportation and regasification businesses to gas suppliers under Malaysia's gas market liberalisation.
Petronas executive vice president and chief executive officer of upstream Datuk Anuar Taib said the market liberalisation, which was implemented since January last year, was now open to players.
"The incentive-based regulation, which aims to provide a more level-playing field while attracting new players to enter the domestic gas market, however does not impact its gas processing and utilities segments.
“PGB welcomes more players to use its facilities, as the company is well-positioned to provide the energy bridge for gas suppliers to deliver their volume to customers," he said after PGB’s annual geberal meeting here today.
The country’s incentive-based regulation aims to provide a more level-playing field while attracting new players to enter the domestic gas market.
The liberalisation, however, does not affect PGB’s gas processing and utilities segments.
Today, PGB announced highest ever dividend of 72 sen per share, representing a payout ratio of 79 per cent.
PGB managing director and chief executive officer Kamal Bahrin Ahmad said the higher dividend was on the back of a strong performance derived from high operating efficiencies.
He added that this was boosted by additional revenue from a full-year’s operation of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) Regasification Terminal Pengerang (RGTP), which was commissioned in November 2017.
PGB recorded an all-time high revenue of RM5.5 billion, while net profit stood at RM1.9 billion, a five per cent increase from RM1.8 billion in 2017.
Asked on PGB's capex, Kamal Bahrin said it was allocating RM1.2 billion for maintenance, statutory requirements inspections and digitalisation efforts this year.
He said the high capex was due to the fact that some of its plants were undergoing statutory inspections which take place once every three to five years.
"Normally, it takes about RM300 million to RM400 million to sustain the reliability and productivity of the plants,” he added.
There will be five plant turnarounds scheduled for this year.