Petronas to pay higher dividend to Malaysian government

Market: Crude oil
01/09/21

Malaysia's state-owned Petronas will make an additional dividend payment of 7bn ringgit ($1.69bn) to the Malaysian government, taking the total for this year to 25bn ringgit.

The oil and gas producer initially targeted a dividend payment of 18bn ringgit for this year, compared with 34bn ringgit in 2020 and 54bn ringgit in 2019.

The announcement of the additional dividend comes even as Petronas expects an increase in oil supplies and Covid-19 lockdowns to pressure its financial performance this year.

Petronas is looking to divest some of its maturing assets. "This is being considered from the lens of its constant exercise to review and reshape its portfolio and high-grade its assets to ensure its operations are cash-flow accretive whilst optimising returns on investments," a company source told Argus.

The dividend move comes ahead of the Malaysian government's budget 2022 announcement at the end of October, which will seek to drive its economic recovery from the effects of the pandemic, among other objectives, the country's finance ministry said.

Malaysia has recorded around 1.75mn cases and 16,664 deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic as of today, compared with 1.4mn cases and 12,510 deaths on 16 August, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

By Reena Nathan

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08/05/25

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