SMJ Energy Sdn Bhd CEO Dionysia Kibat said plans drawn up to expand the company’s portfolio will hopefully be concluded by next year.
“We are just ‘setahun jagung’ — that is to say, still young. So the firm still has a lot of assets and resources to acquire,” she told FMT.
“As we speak now, we are also looking at a few more acquisitions in both upstream and downstream sectors. We hope that we can finalise it, if possible, within the next few months either by the end of the year or early next year, at the latest.”
According to Dionysia, other ventures and diversification strategies will be guided by risk assessments to ensure sustainable growth.
“We need to ensure we have the right strength, with the right capabilities and capacity. Only then can we consider looking beyond.
“If we try to do too many things at once, we lose focus — and that’s not healthy for any company,” she said.
Sabah’s landmark commercial collaboration agreement (CCA) with Petronas, signed in December 2021 under the leadership of chief minister Hajiji Noor, enabled the state to have “greater say, greater participation and greater revenue sharing” in its local oil and gas industry.
The state government launched oil and gas vehicle SMJ Energy to realise the new opportunities enabled by the CCA, including equity in oil and gas assets.
“We started with RM50 million in seed capital in 2023. Today we’ve repaid the state RM160 million in dividends,” she said, adding that SMJ Energy, as a Sabahan outfit, now has RM4.9 billion in assets and posted a profit after tax of RM307 million in 2024.
“We also give back to the state in terms of sales and service tax (SST). We sell crude oil (from Samarang), and we are not exempted from paying SST even though we are a Sabah government-linked company.”
SMJ Energy has paid RM101 million to date in SST to the Sabah government.
In 2024, half of the state government’s revenue came from oil and gas. These funds have since been channeled to support Sabah’s economic growth, with SMJ Energy further assisting in the development of the local oil and gas industry.
“State revenue has tremendously increased after the signing of the CCA. Previously, it was reported to be around RM3 billion to RM4 billion per year. But after that, it increased to RM6.7 billion, the highest so far,” Dionysia said.
“So you can see how important the oil and gas industry is for the state. The growing revenue from this sector directly translates to more budget for the state to deploy for infrastructure and for the benefit of Sabah, in order to develop the lives and livelihoods of Sabahans,” she said.