Petronas LNG portfolio positions Malaysia to capture Asia's growing gas demand

BANGKOK: Petronas is well positioned to capture future growth in Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand, supported by its diversified supply portfolio and expanding production capacity in Malaysia, particularly the commissioning of a new plant in Sabah next year.

Petronas LNG marketing and trading vice-president Ezran Mahadzir said Petronas' integrated LNG portfolio, which includes its established operations in Bintulu, Sarawak as well as supplies from Canada and the upcoming Sabah facility, provides the flexibility and reliability required by Asian buyers.

"Even the portfolio that we have in Bintulu, in Canada and around the middle of next year, we are also commissioning our new plant in Sabah.

"That's a further two million tonnes that's going to be coming into our portfolio," he said during an interview at Gastech 2026 here.

Ezran said Petronas' portfolio would enable the company to serve different Asian markets, whose LNG requirements vary according to their level of maturity and energy needs.

He said demand growth in mature markets such as Japan and South Korea could be relatively saturated, but LNG would continue to play an important role amid the expansion of data centres and efforts to reduce coal use in their energy mixes.

"These markets are very sensitive to reliability. They require reliability, and they also require flexibility," he said.

For Southeast Asia, Ezran said LNG demand was expected to grow, although the region faced greater challenges in terms of infrastructure development.

He said Petronas' experience as an integrated energy company, including in building and operating LNG liquefaction and regasification facilities, enabled it to support partners across the LNG value chain.

"That's where Petronas also brings in the value proposition that we can support our partners throughout the integrated chain," he said.

On LNG prices, Ezran said the fundamental drivers over the longer term remained demand and supply, although short-term market movements could be triggered by geopolitical developments and uncertainty.

"There are always very simple drivers. It's economics. It's demand and supply. Those are the fundamentals," he said.

He cited the conflict involving Iran as an example of how uncertainty could cause short-term movements in LNG prices.

However, Ezran said Petronas took a long-term view when making investment decisions and believed its diversified portfolio, locations and supply sources would enable it to manage short-term market volatility.

"We look at things from the long run. We believe that we are able to weather the storm," he said.

He said Petronas' portfolio was also diversified in terms of exposure to different LNG and gas pricing benchmarks, which allowed Petronas to offer greater flexibility to buyers in managing their price exposure.

"Not only are we flexible from a molecule perspective, but we are also flexible in terms of the commercial terms as well," he said.

Ezran said Petronas' scenario planning continued to indicate that gas and energy would remain part of the global energy mix over the long term.

"We believe in the long run, the fundamentals are strong enough for us to further invest in capacity, and we are well-served to meet those demands," he said.

However, he acknowledged that LNG markets could remain highly volatile in the short term due to changing market conditions and geopolitical uncertainty.