KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (PetChem) managing director-cum-chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Sazali Hamzah is set to be appointed as Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) executive vice president and CEO of Downstream business, sources told The Edge.

Sazali, 55, will take over the position from Datuk Md Arif Mahmood, who will be retiring from the national oil firm on Jan 1, 2022 after 37 years of service.

Sazali will relinquish his post as the managing director of PetChem by the same date, a role which he has served since May 2014. He will be redesignated as non-executive director of PetChem from Jan 1 onwards.

The chemical engineer by training is currently Petronas senior vice president, Downstream, having served senior management positions through roles in the refinery and petrochemical business within the oil and gas group, including as MD/CEO of Petronas Penapisan (Melaka) Sdn Bhd.

The retirement of Md Arif, 59, comes after 37 years of service in the Petronas group, including six years as executive VP of Downstream.

In that period, Md Arif oversaw the development of the US$27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC), Petronas’ single largest downstream investment in a single location to date, spanning 6,303 acres and consisting of the 300,000 bpd Refinery and Petrochemical Complex together with six associated facilities.

The start-up of the project saw challenges including an explosion in 2019, while a fire in March 2020 further postponed the commissioning. The restart was later postponed from March 2021 to the end of this year.

Concurrently, PetChem announced that Mohd Yusri Mohamed Yusof will take over the helm of PetChem. He will be the MD and CEO of the public-listed entity.

Mohd Yusri is also Petronas’ vice president of Refining and Trading and a director in MISC Bhd.

Yusri, 55, has held various leadership roles including as CEO of Ethylene Malaysia Sdn Bhd (EMSB), CEO of Optimal group of companies and PetChem’s head of the manufacturing division.

“During his tenure as CEO of Optimal group of companies, he drove the integration of Optimal group of companies from a joint venture into Petronas as a wholly-owned subsidiary which brought in total assets worth RM6 billion and revenue of RM5 billion in Petronas group.

“As PetChem head of manufacturing, Yusri was instrumental in consolidating the 13 manufacturing plants with annual capacity of 12.2 million tonnes per annum into a single division and drove the operational performance to world class benchmark,” PetChem said in its filing.

“As Vice President Refining & Trading, he has strengthened the oil value chain for Petronas through various strategies including completion of tolling arrangement between the refineries and PETCO Trading Labuan Company Ltd (PETCO), consolidation the petroleum products inventories into PETCO, driving the New Operating Model for the oil value chain involving from the planning up to delivery of the oil molecule,” it added.