Oil well reserves in Malaysia are limited, the production won't be on par to what Middle east are doing.
I can open another 20 wells in Malaysia, but again with current weak market, for every barrel being dig out, I may be losing money.
Australia also giving fair competition to all, but yet Shell still sells their refinery in Australia.
This is nothing to do with local government's policies, is more on keeping the book nice as to continue sucking investor's money.
Shell share in Malaysia are bleeding like nobody's business, from the all time high of rm14 last time, now is at rm5. But at HQ, their share price still remain high.
They already make enough money from Malaysia, so is time to close it down and go to other places.
1 Employee that earning rm6000 a month for them are a burden, but keeping a manager that does nothing for rm60000 are required to stay competitive.

well, the things u mention are totally irrelevant.
do u know whenever we see any resume from shell we will just KIV? reason because shell people are too focus on 1 single repetitive task. for example the finance person that i interviewed from shell only know accounts receivable ! she dont know heck about P&L or BS. And yet they are demanding high salary? I could easily hire at cheaper (or i would be more willing to pay higher pay) to those from chinaman company because this finance girl i hired knows almost everything in finance ! since then i never have prejudice towards small company anymore. mind u i am in a german MNC.

don't believe what i said? go ask other MNC whether they would hire shell staff or not. try those companies near you in cyberjaya (not T-system or HP). My excolleague from here who went to AIG practise the same idea as well.