Petronas sets its sights on downstream amid a challenging cost environment

Kuala Lumpur

WHEN Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin took over as chief executive officer of Malaysian state energy firm Petronas in April 2015, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil had tumbled to around US$55, half the level of the previous year.

Over the following months, prices fell further, forcing Wan Zul, as he is better known, to lop US$12 billion from costs and cut thousands of jobs for the first time at Petronas - a major contributor to Malaysia's budget and one of the country's biggest employers.