Central & SE Asia / Australasia
Country profile: Malaysia
Location: | Southeastern Asia, peninsula bordering Thailand and northern one-third of the island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia, Brunei, and the South China Sea, south of Vietnam |
Climate: | tropical; annual southwest (April to October) and northeast (October to February) monsoons |
Terrain: | coastal plains rising to hills and mountains |
Size: | 329750 sq. km total (Land area: 328550 sq. km Water area: 1200 sq.km) |
Population: | 25,274,133 (July 2008 est.) |
Languages: | Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai |
Government: | constitutional monarchy |
Capital city: | Kuala Lumpur |
Legal system: | based on English common law; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court at request of supreme head of the federation; Islamic law is applied to Muslims in matters of family law and religion; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction |
Currency: | ringgit (MYR) |
Licensing: |
Country profile
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain established colonies and protectorates in the area of current Malaysia; these were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948, the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the Federation of Malaya, which became independent in 1957. Malaysia was formed in 1963 when the former British colonies of Singapore and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo joined the Federation.
The first several years of the country's history were marred by a Communist insurgency, Indonesian confrontation with Malaysia, Philippine claims to Sabah, and Singapore's secession from the Federation in 1965. During the 22-year term of Prime Minister MAHATHIR bin Mohamad (1981-2003), Malaysia was successful in diversifying its economy from dependence on exports of raw materials to expansion in manufacturing, services, and tourism.
Energy production and consumption
Oil | Gas | |
Production: | 751,800 bbl/day (2005 est.) | 60 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Consumption: | 501,000 bbl/day (2005 est.) | 31 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Exports: | 611,200 bbl/day (2004 est.) | 29 billion cu m (2004 est.) |
Imports: | 278,600 bbl/day (2004 est.) | |
Reserves: | 3 billion bbl (2007 est.) | 2 trillion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
Major fields: |
Malaysia - recent news
27 Mar 24 |
Malaysia: McDermott awarded offshore contract from PTTEP McDermott has been awarded a sizeable offshore transportation, installation and commissioning contract from PTTEP for the Kikeh subsea gas lift project, located 120 kms northwest of the island of Labuan, offshore Sabah in East Malaysia. |
01 Mar 24 |
Malaysia: PETRONAS signs two DRO clusters Production Sharing Contracts to boost gas supply in Peninsular Malaysia PETRONAS has signed Production Sharing Contracts for two Discovered Resource Opportunities (DRO) clusters, situated off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The monetisation of the clusters will significantly boost gas supply to the Peninsular Malaysia hub. |
20 Feb 24 |
Malaysia: Mitsui concludes MoU with Chugoku Electric Power on the creation of a CCS value chain between Malaysia and Japan Mitsui & Co has concluded an MoU with The Chugoku Electric Power Co concerning a joint study aimed at the creation of a value chain encompassing carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon transportation. This value chain will be developed for a CO2 storage site in offshore Malaysia that is being jointly developed by Mitsui, PETRONAS CCS Solutions, and TotalEnergies. |
01 Feb 24 |
Malaysia: TotalEnergies signs an agreement for the acquisition of OMV’s upstream gas assets in Malaysia TotalEnergies has signed an agreement with OMV to acquire its 50% interest in Malaysian independent gas producer and operator SapuraOMV for a consideration of $903 million. |
24 Jan 24 |
Malaysia: INPEX awarded exploration block in Malaysia Bid Round 2023 INPEX has jointly been awarded Block SK510 as part of Malaysia Bid Round 2023. Block SK510 is the third exploration block awarded to INPEX in Malaysia following two exploration blocks - 4E and SK418 - awarded to the company in February 2023. |
Malaysia - more news
Other countries in this region
- Australia,
- Bangladesh,
- Brunei,
- Cambodia,
- China,
- Fiji,
- Hong Kong,
- India,
- Indonesia,
- Japan,
- Laos,
- Maldives,
- Mongolia,
- Myanmar,
- Nepal,
- New Zealand,
- North Korea,
- Pakistan,
- Palau,
- Papua New Guinea,
- Philippines,
- Singapore,
- South Korea,
- Sri Lanka,
- Taiwan,
- Thailand,
- Timor Leste,
- Vietnam