Petronas improved its performance for the quarter ended June 30 by increasing its profit before taxation 39 percent, compared with the same quarter last year.

Profit before taxation for the first quarter (April to June 2010) was recorded at RM21.4 billion, compared with RM15.4 billion the year before.

NONE "This is on the back of higher oil prices as world oil demand rose in the emerging economies," said group vice-president of finance George Ratilal.

The group also recorded slight improvements in return of revenue (3.3 percent), return on average capital employed (6.7 percent) and return on total assets (5 percent).

"Dividend for the financial year ended March 31, 2010, amounted to RM30 billion and Petronas expects to maintain a similar dividend amount this financial year," Ratilal said.

The oil and gas giant ended the last financial year with a 23.2 percent plunge in profit as a result of higher costs and lower energy prices.

The Fortune 500 company nevertheless paid a whopping RM57.6 billion in dividends and taxes to the government for the same financial year.

NONE Asked of this today, group president Shamsul Azhar Abbas ( left ) said that he expects the government to be reasonable with dividend demands as Petronas would require more investments to grow in the face of global economic uncertainties.

"We have yet to sit down with the government to discuss this. But our capital expenditure is huge as we need to grow.

"The government is in the know about this, and they too want us to grow," he said.

However, Shamsul added, Petronas was expected to play a large role domestically through the Economic Transformation Programme.

"Based on what we discussed in the laboratories... there will be greater need for investment for (Petronas) to play a role in nation-building.

"(But the government) will be quite reasonable," he said.

Tougher times ahead

He added that the outlook for the financial year ending March 2011 was expected to be better than last year, based on first half figures which would be released soon.

NONE “We are expecting that things won’t be as rosy as the first six months, but we expect the numbers to be better than last year,” he said.

According to Petronas' vice-president of exploration and production Wee Yiaw Hin, the group was looking at tougher times ahead due to the higher cost of exploration.

“Conventional exploration areas are maturing, resulting in moves to higher risks and frontier areas, particularly deepwater, high pressure high temperature and high unconventional plays,” Wee said.

The group also announced that it expects the regasification plant, which is to be built in Malacca, to be completed in June 2012.

The terminal will be used to import liquefied natural gas into Peninsular Malaysia, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the nation’s energy use.