Tough job for Petronas new boss
Singapore
SOMETIME in the middle of last year, Shamsul Azhar Abbas, the boss of Malaysia's oil giant Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), publicly expounded the virtues of meritocracy and belaboured the point that the country's oil resources belonged to all Malaysians, not just ethnic Malays.
Mr Shamsul's views were by no means wild and irrational - in fact, their commonplace sensibility resonated with a larger swathe of Malaysians - but coming from the chief of a firm that's the biggest contributor to government coffers and that is controlled by a state that largely favours Malays or Bumiputras, they were construed as out of line, arrogant even, and a challenge to the country's powers-that-be.
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Energy & Commodities
Glencore-backed group said near deal for Shell Singapore assets
Opec+ may need to tackle oil capacity conundrum next month
Gold flat ahead of US payrolls data, set for second weekly drop
Oil settles near 7-week lows, focus shifts to economy
Exxon-Pioneer deal gets green light from US FTC, Pioneer exec barred from board
Shell maintains pace of buybacks as profit beats estimates