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to a notice of assessment that was issued in Sep- financially beleaguered Malaysia Airlines, with
tember 2019. Petronas CFO Tengku Muhammad Taufik
Awang Nassar said: “[The May agreement] Tengku Aziz set to step in as his replacement.
was a statement based on discussions back then, Wan Ariffin will become chairman of the
and today, I am making it clear that we will con- national flag carrier and is expected to reverse
tinue our civil case against Petronas.” the company’s fortunes. He was appointed CEO
The day after his comments Edge Markets in 2015 and drove the company to adopt cuts of
reported that the Court of Appeal has set a hear- billions of dollars in costs while slashing thou-
ing on June 23 for Petronas’ appeal against the sands of jobs.
Kuching High Court’s decision in March that Wan Ariffin’s appointment comes as sover-
Sarawak was entitled to implement the SST. eign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, which
The revelation that Petronas’ biggest domes- owns Malaysia Airlines, is reportedly consid-
tic battle is still to be resolved comes just days ering a MYR5bn ($1.18bn) loan to the carrier.
after the company revealed that Wan Zulkiflee The airline will use the funding to resume some
Wan Ariffin would be stepping down as CEO suspended operations, Bloomberg quoted
from July 1. unnamed sources as saying on June 11. They
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yas- added that bailout could come in the next few
sin has appointed the executive to head up weeks if approved.™

Pertamina resumes hunt

for downstream partners

PROJECTS & INDONESIA’S state-owned Pertamina has said The company is also still looking to replace
COMPANIES it is looking for new partners to help it develop OOG in the Bontang refinery development in
two major downstream projects after Saudi Ara- East Kalimantan, after the Omani company
mco to Oman’s Overseas Oil and Gas (OOG) pulled out of the project in December 2019. The
exited the projects. Pertamina executive said the project had strug-
The Saudi giant officially terminated its partner- gled with land acquisition issues.
ship with Pertamina on the Cilacap refinery in Central “We will put [the Bontang project] on hold.
Java on April 21, The Jakarta Post quoted Pertamina We will study the supply and demand again.
megaprojects and petrochemical director Ignatius Once that’s clear, we will talk to stakeholders,”
Tallulembang as saying in a June 9 report. said Tallulembang.
The executive added that the two sides had News of the company’s hunt for additional
been unable to agree on the project’s price tag. partners comes after Pertamina signed a deal
Aramco had provisionally committed to invest- with Taiwan’s state-run CPC on June 5 to
ing in the estimated $5.7bn upgrade and expan- develop the third phase of the Balongan facility.
sion of the facility. Talks between the two had The $8bn petrochemical facility is expected to
been repeatedly delayed since December 2018. produce 1mn tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene
Following Aramco’s exit, Tallulembang said when operating at full capacity. First production
his company had approached the UAE’s state- is slated for 2026.
owned ADNOC on May 22 with an offer to join Pertamina’s president director, Nicke Widya-
the project. While waiting for a response, he wati, said at the time that the project could help
added that Pertamina would examine the devel- Pertamina become “a major petrochemical busi-
opment of a biofuel refinery at the site. ness player in the Asia-Pacific” over the next 10
“The land is settled. We will look for oppor- years. CPC and Pertamina will each own 45%
tunities to build what we can while waiting for a of the project with 10% to be held in reserve for
new partner,” Tallulembang said. potential investors.™

Week 23 11•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7