I refer to the Malaysiakini report Petronas wants oil subsidies fully removed .
Who is asking Petronas to hand over all its profits? In the first place nobody is asking Petronas to hand over all its profits to the government to continue subsidising fuel. Is that what that has been happening all these years? How does this ‘subsidy’ work anyway? Why don't they explain the mechanism of this so-called ‘subsidy’ or are they merely talking about opportunity cost here?
Please explain clearly to the rakyat so that they will understand.
At the same time, please explain to Sarawakians, Sabahans and ‘Terengganuans’ why in spite of being oil-producing states they are burdened with higher prices as well? Does this not mean that they are ‘subsidising’ all the other more developed states as well? Is this fair, especially when Sarawak, Sabah and Terengganu themselves still have high levels of poverty?
Please also explain why Terengganu has to literally beg for a share of its own oil revenue through the so-called ‘ wang ehsan ’. Explain in detail how this ‘ wang ehsan ’ was spent over the years and why RM4 billion of it (that we know of) is unaccounted for. Then we can talk about who's subsidising what and whom.
Petronas contributes 32% of the federal government's revenue but has the federal government used this money for the full benefit of the rakyat ?
Please explain why Petronas's contribution to the federal government is used to subsidise mismanagement, mis-governance, inefficiency, waste and corruption to the tune of RM335.7 billion between 1974 to last year.
We are not arguing about Petronas's need ‘to reinvest its profits in new technologies and in search of new oil reserves’. Hassan Merican is wrong. The impact is NOT on the shareholders, which he says are the government. The real impact is on the ordinary rakyat who are getting less and less, and eventually zero.
Who is Hassan trying to fool when he said the continental shelf production and reserves have been coming down, being replaced by deep and ultra-deep water explorations and that resources will deplete for sure?
There is oil offshore Kelantan for sure, otherwise there wouldn't be a joint concession area with the Thais at the international boundary which is producing oil so why doesn't Petronas conduct any real exploration and production elsewhere there?
If the costs to explore and to drill for oil have really increased by about 200% over the past three years, all oil companies would be losing money unless oil prices have also increased by more than 200%, true or not? Does Hassan Merican think we are all fools?
Don't try to sidetrack us with the story that Exxon Mobil made about US$40 billion (RM130.31 billion) last year, an increase of only US$1 billion from 2006, in an environment of higher crude oil prices. That is a different story and probably has its own causes.
If Petronas was really now ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’ as far as finding and extracting oil was concerned, can Hassan please tell us how much of Malaysian territory, both onshore and offshore has really been explored, 5%, 50% or 90%?
How many people really have access to Petronas's annual reports which are deposited in the Parliament library? Even if Petronas really does not hide anything, the truth of the matter is that it is not easy to get pertinent information from Petronas about anything, especially when its own CEO and other of its senior management mislead the press and the public.
We had not too long ago a director and VP of Petronas telling us that Petronas ‘does not fund bridges’. This is an outright lie. What about the bridges in Putrajaya, in fact what about the whole of Putrajaya itself? Are they telling us that Petronas's money did not fund the development of Putrajaya?
We really need better, clearer and more transparent explanations. It is not only Petronas which is answerable to the public but the whole government as well.
The rakyat deserves better explanations about how the nation's wealth is being spent. We would really like to know who is subsidising what and whom and how.
