“The moral issues of distributive justice are unlikely to be realised if biophysical limits to
growth are ignored” - Philip A. Lawn, 2001.
Introduction
This paper evaluates the likely impact on the competitive position of PETRONAS if it were to
strengthen its business strategy based on Sustainable Development.
PETRONAS, acronym for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian owned oil and gas
company that was founded on 17 August 1974. Wholly owned by the Government, the
corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with
the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. PETRONAS is ranked
among Fortune Global 500’s largest corporations in the world. In 2007, its revenue was in
excess of US$51 billion.
Source: Wikipedia and Fortune Global 500
Since its incorporation it has grown to be an integrated international oil and gas company with
business interests in 31 countries. As of the end of March 2005, the Petronas Group
comprised 103 wholly owned subsidiaries, 19 partly-owned outfits and 57 associated
companies. Together, these companies make the Petronas Group, which is involved in various
oil and gas based activities. The Financial Times has identified PETRONAS as one of the
“new seven sisters”: the most influential and mainly state-owned national oil and gas
companies from countries outside the OECD.
Source: FT.com, 11 March 2007
The Group is engaged in a wide 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 net ...