Malaysia tackles upstream declines

Petronas is making huge efforts to arrest falling oil production and accelerate gas increases to meet rising demand, but political tensions persist

While Malaysia’s gas sector has long outperformed its crude and condensate production, there are emerging signs that challenges may be on the horizon—potentially affecting future stability and growth. Crude oil and condensate production declined from a peak of 667,000b/d in 2016 to just 508,000b/d in 2023, according to the Energy Institute’s 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy. At the same time, consumption increased from 838,000b/d in 2016 to 930,000b/d in 2023. Gas production, on the other hand, has steadily increased, rising from 76.7bcm to 81.1bcm over the same period even as consumption remained relatively stable, climbing from 45bcm to 46.1bcm in 2023. Yet despite the gas sector’s