How will it do this? Simple, together with Crest Petroleum and Jawala, it intends to be part of the consortium that will develop Malaysia's marginal oilfields.

According to the Tan Sri, "Oil and gas has become an important contributor to Ranhill's earnings. This sector covers both upstream and downstream activities. We like oil and gas because they are technically appropriate to us. We would like to see ourselves as a technically savvy group."

Hamdan feels that the country's marginal fields are capable of producing around 10 million barrels per day, and that the company was geared towards securing these fields, which would be too small for most production-sharing contracts and for Petronas.

"Ranhill has specialised contractors and is doing a development study on developing the oilfields," he confirmed.

Ranhill, Jawala and Crest Petroleum have recently sent a jointly submitted a letter to the Government and expressed their interest in participating in the proposed consortium. Hamdan has confirmed that he would like Ranhill to head the group but that he would abide by any decision made by the Malaysian Government.