Petronas CEO: Gas remains critical for Asia's energy transition

Saturday 19 Sep 2026

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KUALA LUMPUR (June 16): Natural gas will continue to be a crucial element in meeting Asia's increasing energy demands, even as the region pursues its decarbonisation goals, said Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz.

Unlike some European regions, Asia's transition towards a lower-carbon future must be rooted in practical realities as the region cannot afford a hasty shift from traditional hydrocarbon systems to low-carbon alternatives, especially while existing infrastructure remains underdeveloped, said the Malaysian national oil corporation chief.

“We can't switch overnight when systems are not yet mature, this is hard reality,” Taufik said during a panel session at the Energy Asia 2025 conference on Monday.

According to Taufik, Asia requires affordable, secure, and reliable energy to sustain its economic growth, industrialisation, and the surging electricity demand driven by data centres and artificial intelligence.

“Asia continues to be the manufacturing hub. If we continue on the trajectory of 3-4% energy demand growth year-on-year, gas is going to be ideally placed to fuel this progression,” he said.

He added that Petronas forecasts global liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand would reach about 650 million tonnes per annum in the first half of this century, from 2001 to 2050.

In Malaysia alone, electricity demand is growing at about 6.5% annually, further boosted by investments in energy-intensive data centres, Taufik noted.

“We are actually preparing Malaysia to deal with importation of LNG soon at some point,” he said.

The Fortune 500 company is also ramping up efforts to reduce methane emissions as well as flaring across 20 assets, and to deploy carbon capture and storage (CCS) as an integral part of its upstream operations. These initiatives aim to balance its gas ambitions with climate commitments.

Taufik also repeated the group's dismissal of claims that Petronas might withdraw from its Canadian LNG asset, while affirming the asset is one of the company’s lowest-carbon resources and strategically positioned to directly supply Asia.

“I refute it and deny this news. [The Our Canadian asset holds] 53 TCF (trillion cubic feet) of natural gas, amongst the lowest carbon production in our entire portfolio. We believe, given its strategic location, much like many of the other US LNG projects, it front faces the far east of Asia unimpeded,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, Petronas’ green energy arm, Gentari Sdn Bhd, also aims to build over 20 gigawatts (GW) of renewables and develop green hydrogen and green mobility solutions, with India and Asean as key focus markets.

Edited ByTan Choe Choe

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