Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia president Norsyahrin Hamidon said Petronas’s statement of commitment at the recent Bumiputera economic congress to create opportunities for the community in energy transition was just lip service.

He claimed that no Bumiputera companies were invited to present their offers for the project, which saw three companies involved in the bidding.

“The decision demonstrates that Petronas’s attitude is lip service as they have shown indifference to Bumiputera companies capable of carrying out such large-scale projects.

“This is despite pledging their commitment to involve Bumiputera companies in the energy transition sector,” Norsyahrin said in a statement.

He added that Petronas was supposed to give Bumiputera companies more opportunities as only 30% of engineering, procurement and construction companies are Bumiputera-owned.

Norsyahrin said that even though Bumiputera companies in the energy transition industry do not seek to get the entire project, Petronas should have been fair and included them in the bidding process.

Last Tuesday, The Star reported that Gentari Renewables Sdn Bhd has contracted Solarvest Energy, a Solarvest Holdings Bhd subsidiary, to install solar power systems at more than 300 Petronas petrol stations in Malaysia.

The project is scheduled to begin next month and will involve the installation of systems with solar capacities of more than 5.4 MWp at the petrol stations.

Gentari Renewables is a subsidiary of Gentari Sdn Bhd, a Petronas unit focused on providing clean energy solutions.

Solarvest expects the solar systems to be operational by 2027.

Once energised, they are expected to offset 5,035 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

FMT has reached out to Petronas for comment.