Dr Kenneth Gerard Pereira

Sharing the experience from the oil and gas sector was Dr Kenneth Gerard Pereira , the founding Managing Director of Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd , Malaysia ’ s first SPAC with oil and gas assets in Malaysia , Australia and the UK . In a podcast with BFM Radio , Pereira shared the pandemic had impacted the industry in several ways .

“ Oil and Gas platforms are very congested areas . So you know , all the standard operating procedures ( SOPs ) on physical distancing require a special kind of adaptation .

“ We have maintained business continuity , mainly because our people have been very committed . When they go offshore to work , they spend 20 consecutive days offshore , most of them , and they end up having to do 14 days in quarantine .

“ We create a green bubble for them before they go offshore . We test the workers a couple of times with normal testing to ensure they ’ re not carrying the virus . Then , when they go offshore , we try to maintain a reasonably safe and healthy environment ,” he explained .

Pereira stated that the experience had not been easy . There were cases where people had gone offshore with infection , but the company quickly got them back onshore as soon as possible .

“ From the health and safety perspective , a lot of people were impacted . People working at the coalface sacrificed a lot ,” said Pereira , adding many of Hibiscus Petroleum ’ s offshore workers had not seen their families for a long time due to the inter-State travel ban .

On supply and demand On the business side , he said the oil and

gas market , in terms of the volatility of crude prices due to the supply and demand factors , was also impacted by Covid-19 .

“ I would say it ’ s an interesting phenomenon on the supply side . Everybody has been spending time at home . We ’ ve had time to reflect on what ’ s important in life . Health has become very important for those close to us and ourselves etc . And , because of that , people have been looking at the environment . What can we do more for the environment ?”

He mentioned the whole climate change movement throughout this pandemic has gone up a notch or two . People were now moving to discuss the

climate disaster and the climate emergency starting from climate change . He believed people have begun to consider how the environment could be better from a health and safety perspective .

“ And because of that , a lot of oil companies , in Europe particularly , were pressured to consider if they want to be in the fossil fuels business .

“ And because of that , they ’ ve been moving their investments from fossil fuel investments into renewable investments , causing maybe a tightening of supply . And oil prices now remaining a little bit stable , perhaps even trending up . So , that ’ s happening on the supply side .

“ On the demand side , of course , aeroplanes are not flying , cars are not on the road . So demand has been soft . But OPEC and their alliance partners have been very disciplined to maintain and keep to quotas .

“ Because of that there is some balance in the oil and gas market , with some reasonable crude oil prices being achieved .”

On transition to green energy

When asked about Hibiscus Petroleum ’ s plan to move into a more clean energy profile , Pereira said : “ On the sustainability part , going into a green energy space , we are making a lot of effort .

“ We are going to do things which are complementary to our business . We ’ re not going to pivot and go into photovoltaic solar panels or something like that . We ’ re not going to go into wind turbines . We ’ re not going to plant trees . We ’ re going to do stuff that is complementary to our business to make sure that we decarbonise our own business .

“ Because going on to 2050 , when everybody says we ’ re going to be nett-zero and all of it , 50 per cent of the energy mix in the world is still going to be fossil fuels , oil , gas and coal . In the best scenarios , it will be 40 per cent ,” he said .

Pereira highlighted that the important thing was to ensure that 40 per cent of the global energy mix was also clean . He revealed Hibiscus Petroleum was focusing on that initiative and looking at technologies that will clean up its type of business . — @ green