All contractors (Exxon, Shell, Murphy, Talisman and the likes) who has business in Malaysia will have to go through PETRONAS for approval when they want to do hiring. This is a known fact and has been in place since aeons and aeons ago. Why? Because headcount is cost recoverable. So anything that's cost recoverable, of course PETRONAS needs to know and will need their approval. However, what these people fail to tell you is that PETRONAS has no control over whom you hire. They approve only the headcount but they don't control who should you hire. PETRONAS does not control how many you wish to hire even, you come in and propose and they just approve.

Your fact isnt quite right. Local crude is mostly exported. Local crude usage is imported. Melaka mostly handles imported crude.