Malaysia's PETRONAS Spent $116M on Talent Management Last Year

Malaysia's national oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS) spent about $115.9 million (MYR 500 million) on talent management as well as on leadership training and competency building last year, the firm's top executive said Tuesday, as reported by national news agency Bernama.

"It is quite a significant sum, but we take it as a long-term investment," PETRONAS President and CEO Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said at the CPA Congress 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.

Besides making a hefty investment in nurturing talents, the company also spent a lot of time looking at succession planning and developmental needs of its 51,000 employees.

Wan Zulkiflee said the emphasis on talent management arose because of the changing demographic landscape within the company as 55 percent of PETRONAS employees were below the age of 35.

Given its global operations, non-Malaysians formed around a fifth of the company's workforce last year at 21 percent, little changed from 2012 and 2013, according to data from PETRONAS Sustainability Report 2014. In terms of gender distribution within the firm, 72 percent were males, while females made up the remaining 28 percent in 2014 -- a ratio that was in line with the previous two years.

Turning to industry developments, the PETRONAS CEO commented that fossil fuels would continue to be an important part of energy mix in the next 20 to 30 years. This was despite increased use of alternative energy, whose contribution to the energy mix remained small compared with fossil fuels. More schemes, including incentives and technological breakthrough, needed to be put in place before alternative energy can become a major contributor to energy mix.

"So, I think for the next 20 to 30 years, I'm confident that fossil fuels will still play a big role," Wan Zulkiflee said.

Meanwhile, the PETRONAS chief commented that technological breakthrough has helped the oil and gas industry to continue production and ensure supply of fossil fuels in the market.

"(For example) in Malaysia, today we are drilling deepwater with a depth close to 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) offshore Sabah. That was not possible in the 1980s, but now we have access to that resources," he said, as quoted by Bernama.