SARAWAK-OWNED petroleum company, Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros), is no nearer to picking its chief executive officer.

Petros board chairman Hamid Bugo said the board was screening the more than 40 applicants that had responded to its advertisement for the post in local and national newspapers.

“It will take some time. This is a very important position and we want to choose the best person,” he said yesterday after attending Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg’s press conference to announce the appointment of Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) to spearhead research on hydrogen fuel and hydrogen fuel cell applications in the state.

The former state secretary who in August was tapped to lead the company as its first chairman, however, said all the applicants had met the main criteria of being a Sarawakian.

“We are categorising the applications. We have to do it systematically.”

He said some of the applicants were working overseas but “a lot” were working with Petronas.

To get the best, Hamid said the shortlisted applicants could be asked to sit a psychometric test – “something most employers normally don’t do”.

The tests measure attributes like intelligence, aptitude and personality, which could provide Petros with better insight into how well the applicants work with other people, how well they handle stress and whether they would be able to cope with the intellectual demands of the job.

On the unusual step of advertising for the post, Hamid said it was the fairest way of doing things.

“You have to be fair to everybody. Give them a chance.

“You never know, there might be a Sarawakian with the expertise out there.”

While the search for its CEO continues, Hamid said the company could be operational by the first half of next year.

The other members of the Petros board are Bintulu Port Holdings CEO Mohammad Medan Abdullah, Sarawak Energy Bhd CEO Sharbini Suhaili, former Shell Gas & Power Malaysia managing director Heng Hock Cheng and Sarawak Public Works Department director Zuraimi Sabki.

All had served in various capacities in the oil and gas (O&G) industry.

Medan was previously director of Petronas Gas Bhd and Petronas Dagangan Bhd and was Petronas group corporate affairs senior general manager.

Sharbini, who started work in the O&G industry as a pipeline engineer with Royal Dutch Shell, was formerly Sabah Shell Malaysia’s general manager (upstream operations) before joining Petronas as its vice-president (international production for upstream operations) in 2010.

Heng retired in 2006 after 34 years of services in the O&G industry, encompassing upstream and downstream sectors as well as gas and power divisions.

He had served various Shell entities in Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and China.

Zuraimi was also with Shell in the early years of his career.

The chief minister had said the primary objective of having Petros was to enable Sarawak to participate in upstream O&G development, particularly the exploration and extraction of oil and gas in Sarawak waters. – November 8, 2017.