Senior Petroleum Economist / Senior Business Planner

POSITION PURPOSE

This role delivers robust economic modelling across various Malaysian fiscal regimes, along with valuation, commercial analytics, and decision support to optimize asset investments and business opportunities.

This role also supports planning cycles, performance reporting, management presentations, data consolidation and analytics, and governance coordination to enable effective business decision-making.

As a Senior Petroleum Economist / Senior Business Planner, you will play a pivotal role in connecting diverse teams to develop and execute integrated strategic plans, sustaining continuous business growth and upholding the organization's position as the preferred operator, in alignment with PETRONAS framework.

Principle Accountabilities

3.1 Economic Modelling and Enhancement

• Design, enhance, and maintain integrated economic models to support exploration, development, production optimization, and abandonment activities, incorporating multiple PSC fiscal regimes within a single platform to enable robust scenario analysis and informed investment decision-making.
• Develop and apply economic models across a range of PSC fiscal frameworks, including (i) Revenue/Cost (R/C), (ii) Late Life Asset (LLA), (iii) Small Field Asset (SFA), and (iv) Enhanced Profitability Terms (EPT), leveraging fiscal incentives to maximize asset value.
• Enable rapid scenario and sensitivity analyses across key value drivers, including production profiles, commodity prices, CAPEX, OPEX, first production timing, and fiscal assumptions.
• Ensure the consistency, integrity, and governance of economic models across all company evaluations and investment opportunities.
  
  

3.2 Economic and Fiscal Analysis

• Evaluate project economics for PETRONAS milestones and internal gate reviews, supporting investment, project sanction, and portfolio decisions.
• Define key economic assumptions and development scenarios for evaluation, integrating subsurface, facilities, wells, GHG, commercial, and fiscal considerations.
• Translate production forecasts, reserves, CAPEX, and OPEX into robust business value scenarios, balancing long-term asset value optimization with near-term cash flow generation.
• Perform scenario, sensitivity, and risk analyses across key technical, commercial, and economic value drivers.
• Evaluate PSC fiscal and contractual terms and quantify their impact on project economics, investment attractiveness, and value creation.
• Support asset acquisition, farm-in/farm-out, and divestment evaluations through economic screening and commercial analysis.
  
  

3.3 Commercial Advisory and Value Optimization

• Identify key value drivers and trade-offs across development options and PSC terms.
• Perform economic benchmarking and scenario analysis to support commercial negotiations and strategic decision-making.
• Identify high-value investment opportunities while challenging low-value expenditures to optimize portfolio performance and capital allocation.
• Provide recommendations on commercial structures and fiscal terms to maximize value while maintaining government competitiveness.
• Apply sound professional judgement to interpret economic outcomes and recommend additional or alternative analyses where appropriate.
  
  

3.4 Commercial Negotiation and Decision Support

• Prepare negotiation and management materials, including economic evaluations, value comparison analyses, negotiation positions, and executive presentation decks.
• Translate analytical outputs into clear, actionable business insights to support management decision-making, commercial negotiations, and stakeholder engagement.
  
  

3.5 Governance, Quality Control & Collaboration

• Implement quality control and review processes to ensure accuracy, consistency, and integrity of deliverables.
• Collaborate closely with subsurface, wells, facilities, operations, finance, planning, and commercial teams to align assumptions, objectives, and integrated business outcomes.
  
  

3.5 Work Program and Budget (WP&B)

• Support the Business Planner in the development of the WP&B, ensuring accurate preparation and timely submission of all WP&B deliverables to PETRONAS and the Group, including any required budget revisions. Ensure the WP&B is aligned with the Company's strategic objectives and business scenarios. Continuously identify and implement opportunities to improve budgeting, planning, and analytical processes, enhancing overall efficiency, effectiveness, and decision-making.
  
  

Position Holder Requirements

Formal Qualifications

• Holds a Degree in Engineering, Economics, or related technical discipline.
  
  

Experience, Skills and Knowledge

• Minimum of ten (10) years of experience in petroleum economics and PSC fiscal systems.
• Experience in PSC economics modelling in Excel.
• Demonstrated an ability to seamlessly integrate technical and commercial awareness, with a keen understanding of how various factors impact business outcomes.
• Experience with PETRONAS or comparable national oil companies.
• Proficient in essential analysis and presentation tools, including PowerPoint, Excel, and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).
  
  

Candidate Profile

• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills.
• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Team player with good communication skills.
• Provide leadership and vision.
• Self-motivated, with the ability to implement change.
• Appetite and passion for success.
• Strong execution and delivery mindset.
• Able to work in a fast-paced, less structured environment.
• Good coordination and stakeholder management skills.
• Practical problem solver with risk-based decision-making ability.