A visit to Petronas Refinery, Sg Udang

On 24th June 2009, the English language society members, along with Madam Ivy and Pn Sinar Suria visited the Petronas Refinery in Sg.Udang, Melaka. It was a very informative experience. The Petronas Oil and Gas Company was established in 1974 with the effort of Tun Abdul Razak. Its first office was located at Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur with a staff of only 20 people. From there, it blossomed and 35 years later, it is the 7th biggest oil and gas company in the world with around 39000 staff and the head office is the Petronas Twin Towers. Petronas can now be found in 30 countries all over the world including Indonesia, Australia, South America, Cuba, Africa, Sudan, Iran, Algeria, Japan, Wales, Russia and Papua New Guinea. For your information, Exxon Mobil is the world’s number one oil and gas company. Petronas refinery in Sg. Udang was built in 1994. It is one of the only 2 refineries in Malaysia, the first in Kerteh. In Sg. Udang, 250000 barrels of crude oil is produced per day. There are 115 tanks to store these crude oil. Petronas as a whole produces 660000-670000 barrels of crude oil per day, with one barrel measuring 160 litres. One barrel costs 64 USD. All the drillings are done offshore in Malaysia. There are actually 2 types of crude oil, sweet and sour. The sweet oil has less sulphur content which makes it easier to be processed and has a higher price compared to sour oil which is high in sulphur content. One barrel of sweet oil is priced at 64 USD while sour oil is 40+ USD. The products for export are loaded via pipelines onto ships at Sg. Udang Port. The ships anchor there during processing then once loaded, make their journey to countries such as Japan and Korea. Petronas contributes to 40% of Malaysia’s income and Petronas is special as it reports directly to the Prime Minister’s office whereas companies such as Telekom, Tenaga Nasional and Pos Malaysia report to the Ministry of Finance.