Petronas seeks to sway Canada on Progress Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas group, has embarked on a two-pronged effort to overturn Canada's opposition to its proposed C$5.3bn acquisition of Progress Energy Resources, offering to revamp the Progress board and insisting that Petronas is run like a publicly listed company. The move is designed to persuade Canada's industry minister, Christian Paradis, to drop his opposition to the proposed purchase of Progress as not being of "net benefit" to Canada. The deal would be the largest single acquisition by Petronas since it was created as Malaysia's state energy group in 1974. Petronas, the world's seventh-largest energy group by oil production, wants Progress because it has one of the largest natural gas reserves in North America. Demand for gas is growing in Asia faster than supply as the region's economies expand. Petronas would convert the fuel into liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transportation to Asia where it would be marketed to customers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The deal has been seen as an important test of Canada's openness to foreign investment, particularly from state-controlled Asian companies. A C$15bn takeover of Nexen, another Canadian company, by Cnooc of China is also waiting an approval from Mr Paradis. Shamsul Azhar Abbas, Petronas chief executive, said the company had resubmitted the deal to Canadian authorities last week. We've told them if you want more transparency from us we're prepared to increase the number of independent directors [on the Progress board]. It's good governance," Mr Abbas said in an interview at Petronas headquarters. He also said that while he reported ultimately to the Malaysian prime minister, Petronas had undergone significant changes, since he took over in 2010, that had improved the company's governance. Civil servants that long dominated the Petronas board had been replaced by independent figures including lawyers and accountants. In terms of governance and transparency we are not a publicly listed company but we behave as one. There is no interference from the government," Mr Abbas said. The company provides about 40 per cent of the national budget in a special dividend that amounted last year to M$28bn ($9bn). However, Mr Abbas said that as part of talks with the government that would be cut next year by M$1bn and likely would fall each year thereafter.