Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat today, he said the foreigners were hired for their specialised skills in engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning, and their knowledge of proprietary technology and ICT.

“Local expertise in these fields is limited and we needed to source from outside,” he said to Hasan Arifin (BN-Rompin).

Hasan had asked for the number of foreign consultants and their areas of expertise, saying local consultants in the oil and gas industry were complaining that they had been overlooked.

Azmin said Petronas was forced to rely on foreign experts as there are only a handful of experts in seismic deep water acquisition services.

“At the moment, only four global firms provide seismic deep water acquisition services,” he said.

He added that Petronas hires local vendors through various vendor development programmes.

Under Petronas’ VDP Innovation and Technology scheme, he said, 108 local companies had benefited from a contract worth RM9 billion.

“Petronas is serious about developing as much local talent as possible,” he said.