Malaysia’s national oil and gas company Petronas said Thursday its full-year net profit surged 22.6 percent to a record high, thanks to higher oil prices and increased output.

For the year through March, Petroliam Nasional Bhd.’s net profit rose to a record 43.59 billion ringgit ($12.1 billion), compared with 35.6 billion ringgit a year earlier.

Petronas is Malaysia’s most profitable company and only Fortune 500 company. It is also among Malaysia’s largest bond issuers.

Sales for the year rose 21.8 percent to 166.89 billion ringgit ($46.36 billion) from 137.05 billion ringgit a year ago.

Petronas’ total international reserves were steady at 5.94 billion barrels of oil equivalents as at Jan. 1, 2006, from 5.93 billion barrels a year earlier.

Asked if Petronas will sell bonds in 2006, Petronas Chief Executive Hassan Marican reiterated it wouldn’t need to sell global bonds this year, as the company has enough cash.

On the company’s business outlook, Hassan said “the uncertain global industry environment is likely to remain in the foreseeable future with oil prices anticipated to remain firm” in 2007.

With global oil prices reaching record levels, Petronas said it sold Malaysian crude oil at an average $61.60 a barrel in the latest fiscal year, up 37 percent from a year ago.

The strong price more than offset a 2.1 percent on-year decline in the total average production of crude oil and natural gas.

Hassan said the slight decline was due to shutdowns for major maintenance and repair works in several fields operated by production sharing contractors.

“We have 270 platforms offshore and 150 are above 20 years, and they have to be brought down for refurbishment and service,” he told reporters.

Hassan said the company plans to maintain its production in the current year, but sees production rising slightly when it starts to pump oil from deepwater wells from 2008.

Petronas isn’t publicly traded, and its earnings help boost state coffers. For the year ended March, Petronas paid the government 41.7 billion ringgit ($11.4 billion) in taxes, royalties, and dividend and export duty, up 33.7 percent from the previous year.