ENERGY SECURITY NEEDS TO BE PROMOTED THROUGH NEW MODELS OF COOPERATION, SAYS PM

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 (Bernama) -- National oil companies and international
oil companies must find new ways to strike meaningful and mutually beneficial
alliances, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said
Wednesday.

Energy security needed to be promoted through new models of cooperation in
order to secure a sustainable future for the oil and gas industry, he
said.

"As development efforts focus on extracting resources in increasingly
challenging areas, the ability to forge strong partnerships, leveraging on
respective strengths will be essential to the successful development of such
resources," Abdullah said in his keynote address at the opening of the Third
International Petroleum Technology Conference here.

International oil companies would increasingly find themselves being
restricted to difficult frontier regions, where technical complexity demanded
greater levels of expertise as competition intensified between industry players
for limited access to resources, he said.

Abdullah said the long-term sustainability of the oil and gas industry also
depended on the willingness of industry players to push the boundary of
technology and innovation further.

"The refinement of technologies relating to unconventional resources must
continue since conventional resources will eventually decline. Only through
consistent investment in technology can we ensure energy security for the
long-term future," he said.

According to Abdullah, human capital development is also a constant
challenge for the oil and gas industry.

"We have seen how the low price environment of 1990s saw an exodus of human
capital leaving the industry which was never adequately replaced," he
said.

In this regard, he added, the industry must play an active role in
collaborating with academic institutions to shape the curriculum and produce
qualified graduates able to meet the needs of the industry.

-- BERNAMA