Pricele #57: Natural gas (100 kWh) in Malaysia 🇲🇾

Gas is the one energy price that still depends on geography, because moving it needs either a pipeline or a liquefaction plant at one end and a regasification terminal at the other. A country at the end of a pipe pays something close to the wellhead price; a country buying cargoes on the spot market pays whatever Asia and Europe are bidding that week. The 2022 European price shock, and the year of bills that followed it, was that distinction becoming visible.

Of the 31 countries priced for natural gas (100 kWh), Malaysia ranks #27 from the top at $2.90, 70% below the median of $9.80.

Malaysia is an oil and gas exporter that spends heavily on keeping fuel cheap. RON95 petrol is capped rather than priced, so the pump barely moves when crude does, and diesel carries its own managed rate. There is also no VAT here: the country replaced GST in 2018 with a narrower sales tax on goods at 10% and a service tax at 8%, so the tax wedge on an ordinary grocery basket is small by regional standards. Cheap energy plus a light consumption tax is why Malaysia sits low in the dollar rankings for a country of its income.

See the full table for natural gas (100 kWh) in every country or everything priced in Malaysia.