BINTULU, Sept 16 ― Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today spoke on his experience working as a junior executive with national oil corporation Petronas after his tertiary education.
He said at the time, Petronas had just started operations in 1974 under a very different environment and generation.
A foreign multi-national company had become dominant in oil and gas exploitation in the country then, he said.
“This was so much so that Miri was even referred to as the Shell town,” he said when addressing some 1,000 Petronas employees at a special Malaysia Day gathering at the Bintulu Civic centre here.
He said, however, the country’s leaders like his late father Tun Abdul Razak who was then the prime minister and others decided to change this.
“The nation had achieved its political independence and they then decided to go for its economic independence.
“Their first task was to make Shell a contractor to Petronas in exploration and no longer the sole concessionaire for the country’s oil and gas,” he said.
When Petronas was formed in 1974, he said they wanted to bring honour and respect to the nation’s oil and gas industry.
It then became the custodian of the industry and as years went by achieved many fine achievements and progress to eventually become the national icon it was now, he added.
Najib said the nation was proud of the many achievements by Petronas both domestically and globally and that Petronas should be taken care of in order to maintain and even enhance its fine run.
“It is now the pride and joy of the nation, a national icon and also a Fortune 500 company as well,” he added. ― Bernama
