Monday, June 16, 2008

Oil Hike - Do the Right Thing

There is this joker by the name of Frank Beltran, propagating a drive to put down the oil price by stop purchasing petrol. Worst still he was instigating the public to stop buying from PETRONAS stations instead of other foreign owned stations. He was trying to put the biggest blame to PETRONAS on the current fuel hike tragedy. Poor guy he must be really dumb and blind on the real contributions PETRONAS has made to Malaysia for years and many years to come.

PETRONAS is the biggest and most successful Malaysian company, respected by International oil industry for its integrity, prudent and successful business model. It has been the savior for Malaysia during our financial crisis, economic downturns and the major contributors for the country revenue ( 40% of Malaysian revenue from Oil & Gas Industry ). It is the goose that has been laying Golden eggs for the country. And this joker is instigating Malaysian to kill the goose.

I gave you a personal response from one of PETRONAS senior staff that provides the insights and details of PETRONAS contributions to the country, Rakyat and industry. You are the judge and must act as a responsible Rakyat, put the blame where it is due and to the person who deserved it, not to a Company that have no final say on the oil hike, policy and the running of the country.

DO WHAT YOU LIKE by Datuk Dr. Rosti

The price of gasoline at the petrol station is set by the Government, not PETRONAS. PETRONAS has done its patriotic duty by paying the dividends, royalties, corporate tax, petroleum tax etc to the Government for YOUR benefit (rakyat lah). And bear in mind that 30% of its revenue comes from overseas operations, thus bringing in foreign exchange to the country.

OK. Assuming that you buy this idea proposed by whoever it was.
So PETRONAS will have reduced revenues. Bear in mind that the costs of operations are also increasing. So the profits are reduced. Then PETRONAS and other oil companies pay less taxes.

Then the Government will have less revenue. (Note: at least 40% of Government revenue for 2007 came from the oil industry). With less revenue, there will be less Government projects (you can then forget about bridges and highways, and rail tracks, and smart schools and not-so-smart universities, and hospitals, etc). So contractors and consultants, and con-sultans and con-cronies will cry and scream. Makan batu lah..
The Government has already announced freezing of recruitment. So, many new graduates will be unemployed. Makan batu lagi. Maggi mee pun tak mampu dah.

Later, all sorts of allowances for civil servants will have to be withdrawn. Treasury tak cukup duit. On top of that the oil industry may have to scale back many of its new investments, totaling about 45 billion ringgit over the next few years. Contractors, service providers, steel fabricators, maritime service providers etc will join the ratapan tangisan – no jobs.

Don’t forget that PETRONAS is sponsoring thousands of students in universities and even high schools – at any one time there are more than 4,500 university students being sponsored by PETRONAS in Malaysian universities and overseas. Also more than 2,000 high school children receive minor scholarships – children of poor families.

Kalau PERTRONAS tak ada duit, kesian lah mereka di atas tu. Shall I ask them to see the proposer of this idea (to boycott PETRONAS) and seek help from them instead?

So, it is to YOUR benefit that you make sure PETRONAS keeps making enough money to support YOUR Government so that your children can continue to go to school without paying for fees and books, and to go to universities at peanuts rates.

CONCLUSION: Help yourself and your family and your country by making sure that PETRONAS keeps making profits. Go to the nearest PETRONAS station and fill up now!!

Don’t forget that if you go to non-PETRONAS station, the profits that these companies get will go their shareholders OVERSEAS.
So, be patriotic. Do your duty. Go to PETRONAS!!

(I hope you guys will help to send this response to as many contacts as possible to counter this subversive proposal).


What do you say to this?

frank beltran <beltran_frank@hotmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Fw: Let's get those fuel prices down
LET'S JUST DO IT ! ! !
THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' PETROL FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT
WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET PETROL BACK DOWN TO
RM1.92 PER Litre....

“Here's the idea: For the rest of this year,
DON'T purchase ANY petrol from Petronas
the biggest price-up driver company
If they are not selling any petrol, they will
be inclined to reduce their prices. If they
reduce their prices, the other companies will
have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach
literally millions of Petronas petrol buyers “

18 comments:

cakapaje said...

Salam Dato',

I read a similar email before. But the one I read ask us to do the reverse - buy Petronas only. Apart from being patriotic, the sender was asking us to boycott all other oil producers. Fine, I like the idea. Only thing is, I found petrol by Shell gives me better mileage. Still, I am doing my patriotic duty. But yet, petrol from Petronas gas kiosks are Arabic Sweet Crude that is imported while ours is exported. Oh shoot! Now, I totally confused! I buy Petronas but the oil is imported. I don't buy Petronas, I still buy imported petrol! Its the same with our food.

All our best agriculture produce are being exported, namely to Singapore. The same goes with our sea catch. What we Malaysians eat are 2nd best, or imported from Thailand. So, whoever it was that invented the saying 'You are what you eat', may have some truth in it - unpatriotic food begets unpatriotic people!

Somewhere along the line, things have to change.

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

salam dato,

i went through this entry but as you might not know by now, i am not the best of person to suggest a solution to these woes we're facing. But, i do know whom to blame that the people masses are in grave pain currently. i do know who does not give a hoot of the average malaysian's suffering and i know something could have been done instead of making a hasty decision. now they're saying fuel price wont hike till next year. was that supposed to make us jump with joy?

Rita Ho said...

Organised Chaos comes to my mind, Jaff. Decision makers don't plan ahead nor look beyond immediate solutions to check the consequences of their actions. An unclear message goes out to the masses who react as one would when backed into a corner and hurting - strike back and send a return message. Nothing is really achieved by anyone in the end as all objectives, intentions and reasoning are lost in the absence of directions.

The adjectives used in worldwide reporting of Malaysia's fuel hike were 'stunning', 'whopping', 'reeling', 'scrambles', 'suffers', etc. indicating that even those who don't actually feel the pinch are aware how dire the situation is. I have to wonder what goes through the minds of our politicians when they arrive at such decisions. When, if ever, will they start listening to us?

jaflam said...

Salam Shah,
I guess we act based from the information that we get but unfortunately not all information are telling us the whole truth.

Actually its ok to buy from any Petrol stations of our preference in Malaysia because all the oil are being refined to a common standard minus the additives, in fact the oil companies in Malaysia is practicing sharing of products. If you come to PETRONAS Refinery Melaka tankers loading station you will see not only PETRONAS road tankers queue for the oil but also Shell and Esso. They have to work together to cut on the logistics and costs. In fact all the oil majors have been sharing a lot of facilities from up stream to down stream in the name of cost saving. So the oil that you filled may come from PETRONAS Refinery after all.

There are four refineries in Malaysia having about 900,000 barrels/day refining capacity. PETRONAS refineries in Melaka and Terengganu can refined about 600,000 barrels/day the rest from Shell and Esso smaller refineries. Most of the oil refined comes from Malaysian oil fields while PETRONAS Melaka refinery also refined sour crude from Middle East. They took about 2 to 3 Middle East Crude shipments per months (2 billion barrels/shipment) to maximize its capacity and performance. The cracking of sour crude is more complicated then sweet crude and only few refineries in this region can do it, Melaka is one of them. We should be proud that all the PETRONAS Refineries are being managed and operated by Malaysian and we should be proud that PETRONAS has managed to explore and produced oil outside Malaysia which account to more then 30% of the company revenue. In the borderless world today we cannot be pacified being a hero in our own backyard only. PETRONAS has been geared up to be the future Global Champions having competence, capacity, size and resilience to face the future global business challenges.

Majority of Rakyat from low to middle income is feeling the pain due to the oil hike but we must bark at the right tree instead of chopping the tree that been giving us shades.

I see PETRONAS as National asset that must be preserved, protected and developed for the benefit of current and future generations. Most of the PETRONAS staff is getting salaries 30% to 40% less then their counter parts from other oil majors, they are not happy but proud of their sacrifice in the name of nation building. Do not allow unfounded sentiments and politicians to make a scape goat out of PETRONAS, because its belong to us the Rakyat.

Hope the small clarifications above will assists us in doing the Right Thing.

jaflam said...

Dear Kerp,
I applaud your understanding of the principal cause of current mess due to the oil hike.

One asset that has been developed by our past leaders and need to be championed for our future generations is education and knowledge. A knowledge society will never be a poor society - as preached by Islam or any universal values. That what I love about you and your motto "Kerp PhD".

Unfortunately the politician failed to comprehend that the Rakyat cannot be bought by Gula Gula anymore. They may take the sweets but punished you when the time comes. They are educated lots and no more lost in your "janji janji palsu dan ikatan subsidi"

jaflam said...

Dear Rita,
Thanks for dropping by and sharing.

I hate to see the current situations finally come to the proverb of " Menang Jadi Arang dan Kalah Jadi Abu ".

The leadership must buck up and provide real solutions to the current crisis. The solutions that lighten the poor living not merely pleasant to the ear or irrational judgments. All remedies seemed to be in a haste, such as announcement on salaries to be paid fortnightly but reversed the next day and monthly review of oil price now replaced by no oil increase till next year.

We Malaysian are basically simple and peace loving people but must be treated with fairness and intelligence. I have decided to chip in my part by no more purchasing of new clothes, cancelled my holidays, minimize driving more gardening and candle lights dinner twice a week heheeeee.

Anonymous said...

Salam Dato,
I just don't understand ...PETRONAS is making billions of profit yearly & why...why....why..we the people have to bear the cost for rising oil price...& recently they can paid bonus to their staff 6-8 mths...

cakapaje said...

Salam again Dato',

Don't get me wrong, I am all for Petronas and am proud of it. But I do question the way Petronas is being manhandled and mismanaged by the non-management! We have seen several times Petronas Ringgit being used to salvage a sinking ship or 2, who are closely related to the non-managers of Petronas.

And I am aware of some of the works in Melaka Refinery, or was. Back many years ago when they wanted to do a corporate video on it, I was the original copywriter, employing the launch of MAESAT in the video. I don't know how the video turned out as I gave up halfway through the project - I was only 3 months into copywriting and with a heavy agency workload in daytime job, I just could not cope with the changes requested.

jaflam said...

Salam Anon,
I could understand your frustration on the oil hike but hope you managed to catch the PETRONAS CEO one hour session with the media editors at TV1 just now. It provides the PETRONAS perspective on the current issues.

I believed you and I know that PETRONAS has paid 65% of its revenue to the Government, beyond that as the owner of the Company the Government has to decide how best to use PETRONAS money to alleviate the Rakyat from the current crisis.

On the bonus I feel that PETRONAS staff deserved every dollar that they received from the Company. They are the people that make it possible for PETRONAS to make billions through their sweat and blood. They have braved the sea, live in freezing Turkmenistan, hot Sudan desert, Vietnam, South China Sea and thirty other remote countries of the world to bring oil money to the Company. They left their family half of their life to explore and produced oil from the sea and desert.

Mind you even then they have been paid less then their counterparts here in Malaysia and if you compared their salary to those being paid in Middle East and developed nations they are miles behind. Those countries are now offering our engineers and professionals 4 to 6 times higher salaries. We are losing our professional in hundreds per year, if we are not careful in managing the talents we will end up with none. We cannot expect PETRONAS to pay peanuts to their 30,000 staff, bcoz that pay will only attract monkeys that will destroy all the oil fields.

jaflam said...

Salam Shah,
I am happy on your position and understanding of PETRONAS business and arrangements with the Government.

I am just taking the liberty to explain the subject matters in greater details bcoz
of my privileged knowledge on oil and gas industry in Malaysia. Could have written more but afraid I might offended some of the readers or leaders.

Ydiana said...

I very much understand that Petronas has played a major role in bulding up nation, but then again, they make hundreds of billions for the past years, from our nation's natural resources 'free' from Mother Earth. People are questioning where has it gone to? Ineffeciencies, wastage, mismanagement, politics, not necessarily by Petronas itself, but the surrounding power around it. Currently they're trying to put the blame on the CEO, but he's not the one whos's supposed to be answerable. The government are the one with policies and power to make decisions on Petronas's billions. The second finance minister now wants more power and money, wish to put one of his glc clowns there and put Tan Sri Hassan out.

But then again, inefficiences and wastage are still there within the company. Even when the staff are paid below their counterparts in competitor companies, they are still among the highest paid with the most benefits in Malaysia. I think they should count their blessings...

Lee said...

Hi Jaflam, Very interesting posting. I guess always ada la orang orang buka mulut atau tuliskan tidak check their facts. Especially on an open channel.
I do believe everyone has his or her opnions, but again I believe kalu not sure better to tutup mulut than expose myself to be jurassic. But to put the blame on Petronas?
I was around when Petrona first laid its foundations in Trengganu...I passed by Kerteh? every three weeks for few years and could see how the country improved once it got into full swing. It has done good for the country and will be doing so.
Oh well, we too dapat all kinds of hilarious rantings disini, even from MP's!
Some folks are wise and some are otherwise.
Don't forget water your rambutan tree, Lee.

jaflam said...

Hai Ydiana,
I am afraid you are right, they are putting TS Hassan on a spot. If they are successful, it will divert the public attention from the Government to PETRONAS and TS Hassan. Since he is not good enough he will be replaced by some crony that moves like a puppet on a strings. And they will be successful in killing one of the best corporate leader the country ever have.

PETRONAS is a gold mine that has been the dream of many corrupt, ill minded, un patriotic leaders. Hopefully it will be saved from the onslaught of the evil minds for the benefit of Rakyat.

jaflam said...

Hello Lee,
Thanks for anchoring at this stormy port. If you come back for a holiday don't forget to take a drive from Kemaman to Kertih. There is huge petro chemicals complex and port housing more then 15 plants. It has been the catalysts for enhancing value and revenues by going down stream instead of just selling crudes. I just came back from Miri, the first oil town. The volume of oils from Sarawak fields is reducing but the town is more of a tourist city now.

One of the things that I like about PETRONAS is its ability to turn unviable projects that have forced into it to become a profitable venture. Of course like any business there are failures here and there but overall it managed to give sterling performance as one of the Fortune Global 500 companies of the world (121 placing).The future of global business depends on the capability, capacity, size and resilience of the company - hopefully in a decade or two PETRONAS should be able to survive even without the privileged oil from our fields.

The rambutan is still green but in a few months, it should be ripe enough for feast. I will be saving money there on top of the saving from eating home cook food most of the times. Like you food is my soft point, give me good food and I will forget about the Angelina Jolie lips.

ZABS said...

Salam DJ,
Kenaikan harga minyak yang melampau ini tiba pada masa yang amat kritikal. Dalam kegembiraan memenangi satu tender kecil hidrografi, diuji dengan peningkatan kos bahan api yang menyesakkan ini. Di samping itu kos yang lain seperti bot dan seumpamanya juga ikut naik bersama.
Semasa membuat penggiraan untuk tender itu tahun lepas (2007), harga diesel diguna cuma RM1.65. Kini harga untuk di bot ialah RM3.50. Didoakan agar cuaca menyebelahi kami dalam melaksanakan tugasan ini. InsyaAllah..

jaflam said...

Salam Zabs,
Memanglah menyakitkan kepada semua pihak kenaikan harga minyak. Harap tuan dapat bertahan dalam perkara ini dan kalau dapat bincang semula dengan pemberi kontrak tentang kos minyak ini amatlah baik. Kami di pelabuhan pun telah merancang untuk kenakan "oil price levy" atas kegunaan kapal tunda untuk mengatasi kos disel yang tinggi itu.

Harap yang punya kuasa dan menyeksa Rakya bangun daripada lena dan membetulkan keadaan.

Anonymous said...

Salam BRO, I missed out on tis issue. Just to agree with u, in comparison with Nigeria where Shell sucked up the oil, what developement that the oil revenue/resources contributed to the infrastructure there? Like your fella bloggr said look at kertih etc. the town developed by petronas money literally.
The places where the oil beeing produced in nigeria still jungle grove with pollution done by the oil refinery etc. the river and the drinking water polluted by petrochem industries that run by major international industries such as shell etc.
i met one blogger famous one while attending TDM criminilise war in London, her origin is fr Nigeria. she said her grandad ill and not able to get treatment from the hospital there, yet where he live is equivalence of shelltown where the oil is sucked out from the earth of nigeria.
school and infrastructre was bad. people still suffered from even resort to steal petrol/gasoline from the tank enroute to the destination as they are too poor to buy them. even distributions of wealth never exist there. in comparison in msia- or be it petronas it has been a blessing in disguised as it helps the govt to developed and continue to develope the town, port job creations and a lot more. only one sinking brain of one man suddenly buat kecoh on jst dia jadi lawyer sue the fed gov over royalties. the fact that the money was evenly distributed to around msia tak nampak. so one ruddy cow jumped into the mud it splashed every thing around it. ppl with bad intention picked up fact that is negative to follow through. never a good point. that is the selling point. the fact that i met a writer who wrote abt TDM a positive one but hentam Bumis like hell. Just saying things from 6 weeks staying in kk. Whn i asked how he did his research b4 he wrote the article, he said taxi driver, ppl where he lepak for 6 wks. whn i asked his empirical studies, research methodology wasnt thorough. he just answered me that is sufficient. yet his report was published by financial news wire and rely upon by city goers. He called himself as journalist. yet he was a partime writer i wld consider. not that he wrote in newspaper. just whnever he got some ideas. penulis partime, partime ajar tuition, monthly kutip duit rumah sewa etc. but these are the danger of ppl writing without responisibilities.
i
Back to petronas, yes i think to give justice they have fairly contributed to the growth and wealth of our nation. that is facts hard facts. what ever money it was help to save the shipping industries well that is a good investment - synergies.
always look at the good side of thing.
talking abt gov bail out - here the Royal Bank of Scotland being bailed out. yet thy pay bonus even tho no profit make for the year. but few newspaper made it an issue, the rest not bothered. where ever we go if we think msia is bad, etc. think again. as we know not the real practise outside here in the city capital of financial of the world.
the suratkhabar disini bukan lah free sgt in their reporting. kalau silap langkah mereka boleh kena (editor)j4il atau cold should3rkan oleh kerajaan di sini. all in all kebebasan dan keadilan di canangkan bukanlah transparent dan betul 2 berlaku. on the surface sahaja. what happened in msia jadinya dtg beberapa kepala senget yg gila kuasa atau rasa dia bleh ubah dunia di mata mereka buat kecoh dan org yg kurang berpengetahuan melatah dan mudah terikut. the problem is msia, petronas are alright. but some smart alec/arse think they knew better. tis pple talk with their brain and logic stuffed in their arse.sorry my language.
back to the nigeria lady she said poverty, hospital all below poverty and kena bayar lagi. the money never reached to the nigerian ppl. the international oil and gas company breached human rights, they just pay to whomever thy can to stay and take the oil out.
i was never a fan of TDM ETC. Or UMNO, KEADILAN ETC ETC.
But whn away from home i saw things in a clearer perspective. I tolerated the ideas and reasoned behind it.
For sesapa rasa petronas money to save individual shippg ke apa ke benda, senang shj. move out from msia and make sure while away from msia read international news etc. then u wld see all those new party like ....., etc are thy really really what they said?
Sesungguhnya org msia cepat lupa tak kira kaum dan bangsa.
termasuk lah yg hampir menyuruh govt msia take imf medicine. now cakap lain. sad.
Petronas income in billion is hasil negara. so it shld be use to help any instrument and structure for negara at large. rather than thy keep to themselves might as well spread it across the country. that is why the federal state / govt function supposed to do. sociologically and politically it suppose to help to all the growth and develpmnt of the country with its income.
with foot in mouth culture tend to spread in msia at large, it is hard to apply any treatment to these. thy do more harm than anything.

Look at aramco, look at brunei. what exactly the distribution of oil wealth did? my experience there we had to go to the -4 th petrol st to get diesel. minyak takde. hahahaha. famous brunei but thy tak berani la nak bising bising.

Satu hal msian ni, kalau some one doing well in managing the organisation, lama sikit mereka dah rasa macam taksenang. Again i'M not Hasam marican fan, but i think he knew and well versed with what he is facing. infact a lot of thinks he managed to clinched because of his character. nothing else.
rgds


sis

jaflam said...

Salam Sis,
Many thanks for your insightful comments. It is importanat that the people receive unbias information on many issues that have been played up by the politicians from whatever fronts.

As you correctly said we can only appreciate what we have here by experiencing what the others are suffering at this very moments. Yes there is much rooms to be improved but never destroy the good values and blessings we have been given all these years.

Take care and have a great day.