Petronas vows to defend Malaysia’s oil, gas rights amid China map dispute
Petronas will “very vigorously” defend Malaysia’s sovereign rights to develop oil and gas assets offshore Sabah and Sarawak, its president and group CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik Aziz said.
Source: RSS · August 23, 2026 at 4:51 PM · AI-assisted report
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KUALA LUMPUR, 24 AUGUST 2026 —
Petronas will “very vigorously” defend Malaysia’s sovereign rights to develop oil and gas assets offshore Sabah and Sarawak, its president and group CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik Aziz said.
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The national oil company rejected China’s 2023 Standard Map, which shows parts of Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone in those waters as Chinese territory. Tengku Muhammad Taufik told a media briefing on Petronas’s second-quarter results that the company’s upstream activities lie entirely within Malaysia’s sovereign area. “Petronas will very vigorously defend Malaysia’s rights to develop assets and energy reserves for its own energy security,” he said.
Malaysia’s foreign ministry said it does not recognise the Chinese map and remains consistent in rejecting any claim to its maritime zones, citing the 1979 Malaysian map. The ministry described the South China Sea issue as complex and said it must be handled peacefully under international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Petronas also reaffirmed its partnership with Sarawak’s state government to develop hydrocarbon resources beyond the 2020 commercial settlement agreement. The remarks followed speculation that Shell might replace Petronas in Sarawak’s oil, gas and carbon capture projects.
Tengku Muhammad Taufik said Petronas has a Sarawak state representative on its board and uses formal and informal platforms for coordination. “I don’t know why it is portrayed as an immediate substitution or replacement,” he said.
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