Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. In the 2017 Forbes Global 2000, Petronas Gas was ranked at 1881st.[8] Petronas also ranked 48th globally in the 2020 Bentley Infrastructure 500.[9]
Since its incorporation, Petronas has grown to be an integrated international oil and gas company with business interests in 35 countries. As of the end of March 2005, the Group comprised 103 wholly owned subsidiaries, 19 partly owned outfits and 57 associated companies. The Financial Times has identified Petronas as one of the “new seven sisters”:[10] the most influential and mainly state-owned national oil and gas companies from countries outside the OECD.
The group is engaged in a broad spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.[citation needed]
Petronas provides a substantial source of income for the Malaysian government, accounting for more than 15% of the government’s revenue from 2015 to 2020.[11]
The company is headquartered at the Petronas Towers.