The company of my choice is PETRONAS, the petroleum Multinational Corporation based in Malaysia. The paper will outline the background of the company followed by identification of the actual and potential impacts of globalisation on the company. Recommendation of strategies which the company might use to respond to the impacts is covered in the last part of the paper.

1.0 Overview of PETRONAS

Multinational enterprise is defined as a large company with substantial resources that perform various business activities through a network of subsidiaries and affiliated located in multiple countries. (Cavusgil, Knight& Riesenberger, p.13).

PETRONAS, the acronym for Petroliam Nasional Berhad is a petroleum multinational corporation headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which was incorporated on 17 August 1974 under the Companies Act, 1965. It is national oil company of Malaysia, vested with the entire ownership and control of the petroleum resources in the country (PETRONAS, 2010). Under the leadership of Tan Sri Hassan Marican, PETRONAS is transformed rapidly into a global company with oil explorations and business joint ventures with overseas partners. Over the years of effort, it has become a fully-integrated oil and gas corporation with operations in more than 30 countries worldwide and ranked among FORTUNE Global 500® largest corporations in the world (PETRONAS, 2010).

1.1 Integrated business of PETRONAS

PETRONAS is fully integrated across the value chain from the upstream exploration, development, production, processing, and transportation and gas transmission to the marketing of liquefied natural gas and other petroleum products as shown in Figure 1.0. PETRONAS also involved in domestic refining, petrochemical manufacturing and marketing business, while managing a globally coordinated downstream operation designed to optimize product delivery to its customers through its marketing and trading operation (PETRONAS Capital, 2009). PETRONAS also engage in shipping, automotive engineering and property investment.

1.2 Petroleum as the Core Business of PETRONAS

Petroleum is the core business of PETRONAS because refined petroleum products account for 37% of the company total revenue amounting to RM80.7 billion (PETRONAS, 2010). Exports and domestic operation contributed 35% and 19.7% of PETRONAS’s total revenue respectively which bring positive balance of payments to Malaysia (PETRONAS, 2010). Thailand, Japan, Korea and Singapore has been the main crude oil export countries of Malaysia which account for 87% whereas over 40% of gas was exported to markets in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, most of the remainder used domestically for electricity generation (Malaysia Green Technology Corporation, 2010).