National oil producer Petronas will be on track for another record profit result in the current financial year to March 2006 if crude prices remain high, an official said today.

"If crude oil prices go the way they are going now, it will probably be higher this year," said Mohamed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, head of legal and corporate affairs at Petronas.

"Of course it's not good for the industry or the economy for prices to remain this high," he told journalists.

Petronas said last month that its net profits rose 50.3 percent in the year to March to a record RM35.56 billion due to spiralling oil prices.

President and chief executive officer Mohamad Hassan Marican said revenues rose 40.5 percent to RM137.0 billion, also an unprecedented result in the company's 30-year history.

Ambitious plan

Mohamed Azhar said Petronas was rolling out a campaign to become an energy player able to compete with giants like ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco.

"We have got a very ambitious plan over the next 10 to 12 years. We want to become a global champion," he said.

Petronas was proud to have exceeded China's CNPC and Italy's ENI in profitability in recent years, but would need to expand further or face becoming a takeover target, Mohamed Azhar said.

"We can't afford to remain at this level because we could easily get gobbled up by competitors," he said, adding that where ever possible Petronas was establishing partnerships to expand its international presence.

He said the company is focusing on expanding downstream operations, including its LNG business in Britain where it has signed a 15-year gas sales agreement with Britain's leading energy supplier Centrica Plc.

Petronas is the only Malaysian company to be listed in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest firms.