KUCHING, JUNE 12- Has billionaire entrepreneur Ananda Krishnan secured direct control of a series of Sarawak’s off-shore oil fields through his Pexco division?
Pexco is the natural resources division of Usaha Tegas, which is controlled by Krishan.
The question surfaced after Pexco chief executive officer Sean Guest posted an update on Linked-in describing the oil and gas company as having “one of the largest acreage holders in Malaysia”.
Pexco’s “primary assets” according to Guest are now in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Etiopia.
Guest’s CV posting noted that Pexco is focused in Australia-Asia and the Indian-ocean rim and has regional offices in these areas.
He said Pexco Sarawak signed four PSCs in Malaysia covering 25,000 sq kilometers last year.
“Last year in Malaysia, Pexco Sarawak signed 4 PSCs (production-sharing-contract) for the large area west of the prolific Central Luconia Platform where there is more than 35Tcf of recoverable gas.
“The area covers almost 25,000 sq Km and makes Pexco one of the largest acreage holders in Malaysia.
“This year the company will aggressive acquire more than 3,600 sq km of 3D seismic in preparation for exploration drilling,” he posted.
The posting had online Sarawak Report questioning the ‘astonishing” development.
According to the portal, the deal placed Ananda Krishnan who is closely aligned to former premier Dr Mahathri Mohamad in an “unprecedented position to sub-contract to major oil companies including Petronas!
Bigger questions
An industry watcher Ganesh Sahathevan was quoted as saying “till now such negotiations have been strictly controlled by Petronas and not farmed out to intermediaries to cream off the profits.”
According to the SR, official notices to mariners confirmed that Pexco are already exploring the vast area.
“They started conducting seismic surveys on the 4th May and have indicated they will continue for 80 days.”
While there there will be emerging questions over the secret political deals surrounding this latest departure, the bigger questions, SR asked were “why has Petronas handed in the keys” to Pexco?
“(And) why is Petronas itself not dealing with the contract and allowing this Malaysian business crony of ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad to slip in between?”
“This development draws further attention to the continuing influence of Mahathir over the management of Petronas.
“It was already a scandal that the Petronas accounts, which are by far the country’s greatest source of revenue, should have been kept secret only for the eyes of the Prime Minister/Finance Minister,” it noted.
