Malaysia's Petronas posts $18.1b profit

Malaysian state energy firm Petronas on Tuesday announced a record 18.1 billion dollars in net profit for 2007/2008 and said it was still keen on pursuing Iran's Pars liquefied natural gas project.
"We have performed quite well. It is another historic set of numbers for Petronas Group," president and chief executive Mohamad Hassan Marican told reporters.
The profit compared to 12.9 billion dollars the previous year.
Petronas, under intense criticism with allegations of mismanagement and secrecy, also announced a special dividend payout of 6.0 billion ringgit (1.9 billion dollars) to the government.
Hassan said Petronas was still interested in the 2.0-billion-dollar LNG joint venture project in Iran but that it had not completed negotiations with the Iranian government due to rising costs.

"We can't come to a final decision because we need to make an assessment of the price, costs and the viability of the project," he said.

Hassan said Petronas had the resources to participate in the project on its own, after French energy giant Total dropped out of what was supposed to be a three-party development with the Iranian government.