As Malaysia’s Sapura Energy tumbles, Petronas’ silence is telling

[SINGAPORE] In an industry where even giants have fallen from dizzying heights, Malaysia’s home-grown oil and gas titan is on the ropes.

Once a flagship of the oil-rich nation’s ambition to build stalwarts in the upstream energy segment, Sapura Energy is teetering on the brink of collapse – buried under more than RM10 billion (S$3 billion) in debt and years of financial and strategic missteps, including a furious global expansion fuelled by debt.

At its peak in 2014 – just before the global oil slump – Sapura Energy had an order book of over RM27 billion and a market value exceeding RM30 billion. It was ranked the world’s second-largest integrated oil and gas services provider, behind only Italy’s Saipem.