I would say that that is about right. Starting salary for E1 (fresh grad) is 4K now. So E2 which is basically someone with 5-6 years experience would be around the number you quoted.

All IT position is outsourced to iPerintis.

I know of a couple of friends who have left the company because of this M3 shenanigans. The M3 is not an issue, it's the force ranking as one of the posters said. There are several levels of ranking and the systems needs to be refined. After each level, you will be forced ranked and sometimes there is no one defending you (your supervisors defended you at the lower levels) Once it's gone to the upper levels, there is only the PPA form that defends you ....

Thankfully I am out of that system .....

Aaahhhh PSC Audit, the department that makes all Operators (Exxon/Shell/Talisman etc etc) tremble.

What grade did they give you? E2 or E1?

Wow, I didn't know that the benefits have been cut that bad ... I guess they increased the salary and then they cut the benefits. Bear in mind that previously the salary for Petronas was not as competitive as other O&G companies. A lot of staff complained about the salary and in most cases they did not or could not see the "other" benefits.

After 1000 skilled personnel in Geoscience and Petroleum Engineering left (me included) left the company (Do you wonder why our current oil production is now 450K barrels per day instead of the targetted 520K barrels per day?), Petronas decided to implement a new remuneration scheme BUT I guessed they had to cut some other benefots somewhere ...

Epiyana, it's a tough call on whether to stay or go (though you have made your decision). What PSC Audit does is basically they will Audit all the expenses that the Oil Operators (Exxon/Shell/Talisman/Newfield etc etc) makes to PETRONAS. These expenses falls under the Cost Oil Recovery Mechanism so MOST of the time, this are the expenses that will go to the operators and will not fall under the PITA, PSC Share etc etc, so the Audit guys are the most feared people by the Operators. They go to the Operator's offices and basically either endorsed or not endorsed the Cost Oil Recovery accounts.

In some cases, PMU has used this processes to squeeze the operators to implement Malaysianisation. Imagine that 2 million USD cost for one American/British expats that are rejected outright by Audit, and that is for one expat.

Whenever the Operators hire an expat, they require approval from several divisions in PMU and the most persuasive criteria is whether they can claim Cost Oil or not. If they cannot claim the cost oil, they most likely will not hire the person.

That's one part of the PSC Audit scope of work.

Anyway, maybe when I'm 50, I'll return to Petronas and "contribute" to the nation. I loved working in Petronas.

8 year of experience,you should ask for nothing less than an E2 grade code. If you are lucky, maybe an E3 (Manager Level). Anyway, Good Luck!

Headhunters in UK is asking for my CV to give to Carigali-Hess (which is basically a PETRONAS subsidiary), so we'll see how that goes. The itch to return is quite strong right now ...

I think epiyana is staying with PNB instead of moving to PETRONAS.

As mentioned by danishhaikal, you should be looking at 6K-8K since Fresh Grads are already getting a starting salary of 4K. When I left the company, I was getting base salary of around 7K (plus 1.5K of skill allowance) after close to 10 years of experience. PETRONAS has increased this significantly though and I would think that for an E2 now you should be looking at 8-10K in base pay (just my speculation though)

I have a friend who is E3 and he is getting around 17K, new E3 (those newly promoted) were getting 12K.

Hope that helps.

I was a manager in Petronas for a very short while ... but I was with the company for 10 years so knows a lot about how it is run. Now I'm an expat in another country. Will be back this summer (August) for a 5 week vacation (mau puasa and raya in Malaysia maaaa).

The position is probably an E2 position which is a senior executive position, that's why they put a lot of "lead" this and that. I'd say for 5 years experience you should be looking at 6-8k basic per month.

Depends on the contract that you sign. I would recommend that for Direct Hire to really negotiate on the fine detail of your contract such as yearly increments and bonuses. Otherwise, the HR people will put "per the discretion of Management" which basically mean that if they feel like it, they will give you bonus, if not ... sorry. So negotiate your contract properly.

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Added on July 30, 2011, 6:21 pmWhere got unlimited benefits? Your uncle is pulling your leg.

If he has not taken the 55 year old retirement age change then he will retire at 60. If he has taken it, he will have gotten hs "retirement change compensation" for the last 10 years (it was completed this year I think)

Insurance coverage is now by ING

PTERONAS does not have a pension scheme, there is a retirement benefit that is calculated based on your years of service and will be deposited into the EPF once you resign or retire from PETRONAS but nothing like the Government Pension Scheme.

This post has been edited by azraeil: Jul 30 2011, 06:21 PM

Bonus in Petronas is okay if you do okay in your PPA (as long as you don't get the dreaded M3 rating), this year was 4 months basic salary (so even Fresh grads were getting 16K bonus before tax and EPF), those who performed (getting a 2 rating) will get their merit bonus as well, which is siginficant (another 4 months bonus) and those who got outstanding will get close to 6-8 months merit bonus, so you can get a year's worth of bonus.

Kalau wife/husband is working in Petronas, then you get double bonus.

Read up on the thread and you ill get some info. Fresh grad pay is 4k a month.

I would think that if you are a technical person, they will definitely hire you on a technical line. A lot of the managerial position are held by internal staff.

They have even opened the opportunity for ex-staff to return. Maybe when I'm 45-50 maybe.

The problem is the position is a bit vague. I have a friend who is a senior planner and his job is basically to analyse the production rate and to compile from all relevant department all the necessary information for him to come up with how many rigs are required for the next financial year, the next business cycle etc etc. It involves a lot of powerpoint presentation and excel spreadsheets.

As for the working environment in Carigali Hess, I would assume that it would be similar to Petronas.

This post has been edited by azraeil: Sep 10 2011, 08:50 PM

Bonus in PETRONAS (not sure about Carigali Hess) have several tier. The General Bonus is the same across all discipline, be it if you are in HR, Finance or E&P (Geology/Petroleum Engineering). The second tier bonus is the Merit Bonus which is based on your performance review. If you are deemed to have exceeded the requirement, then you will be given a 2 rating and will also get Merit bonus in the range of 1.5-2 months extra bonus on top of the general bonus. Your increment is also much higher (close to double the increment of the normal performer). If you are deemed to have done an outstanding job that year, you will be given a performance rating of 1 and the merit bonus is in the range of 3-4 months bonus on top of the General bonus and an increment of close to 12-15 percent of your basic salary.

Be reminded that all this is in PETRONAS. I do not know if CHess does the same thing.

Only non-exec has contractual bonus and they are usually around 2 months. For executives, the annual bonus (or general bonus) are based on the performance of the PETRONAS Group. So if they make 60 billion in net profit (like last year) then everyone (executives) will get an annual bonus of 4 months (that was for 2011).

So if you performed (getting a perfomance appraisal of 1 & 2), then on top of the 4 months bonus, you will get an extra merit bonus of 2-4 months so in theory, you can get up to 8 months bonus.

Next year is also looking good, PETRONAS has made 25-30 billion in net profit for the 1st 3 months (this year the finacial year has been changed from the 31st of March every year to the 31st of December) so Dato' Azhar expects PETRONAs to make the same amount of profit eventhough they will only report revenue for 9 months instead of the usual 12 months. Expect at minimum 3 months annual bonus for next year.

Since PETRONAS is sending students on loan basis, I suspect you can arrange with them the payment scheme. Probably around 60k if you score 3.5 and above. But since I know PETRONAS is a vengeful type of company, you may want to get the payment scheme in black and white.

I haven't heard a case like yours. I've known cases where the scholar did not passed the SI and even one case where the scholar was not even called for an interview.

Better check your loan contract and see what they say. I personally believe that it's a one sided contract. In my opinion, if PETRONAS gave the right to ask you to pay 60k if they don't like you (in other words, you fail the interview) then a quid pro quo is in order, ie. You should also be allowed to pay 60k not to work with PETRONAS.

Then again, there is a reason why I left the company and one of them is frustration in working without proper terms and conditions.

There's a lot of "planner" position in the O&G industry. My experience is in the Upstream side of the business so I'll explain some of the work done by "planners" on that side.

My friend has a degree in Petroleum Engineering and they usually also do some planning in terms of looking at the production profile (i.e. how many barrels of oil can the field produce) and then compiling all those reports from all those fields and then coming up with an analysis on how much production can the company produce quarterly, yearly etc etc. The busiest time will be near the business cycle period (some companies do it in October, some in March, depends on the company)

If you are in the Banking line that I suspect you will be doing what my friend is doing. He's happy doing it, it's not as technical as he likes it to be (he was doing simulation model before) but I guess he's okay with it.

Carigali Hess has a big operation in the JDA area and with the USD15 Billion Sour Gas development project coming up, I guess they will need several planners to come up with their business plans on how much it will cost, how much production the can expect etc etc.

Hope that helps. Change is hard, but once you make it, it's easier to do it again.

This post has been edited by azraeil: Sep 10 2011, 08:59 PM