ADNOC announces additional partnerships

ABU DHABI -- The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will accelerate delivery of its new integrated gas strategy, as well as its plans to increase its oil production capacity to 4 MMbpd by 2020. 

H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE minister of state and ADNOC group CEO, saying there would be no let-up in the momentum gained during a record-breaking Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC). The conference was attended by more than 145,000 industry professionals, an attendance increase of 30% compared to last year. International visitors were up 50%.

Dr. Al Jaber signaled that ADNOC would be making additional strategic announcements in the coming weeks, including new partners for the Ghasha concession, which is ADNOC’s offshore ultra-sour gas mega project, consisting of Hail, Ghasha, Dalma and other offshore fields.

Other upcoming announcements will center on the Abu Dhabi government’s historic decision, earlier this year, to open six oil and gas blocks for competitive bidding. The blocks potentially hold multiple Bbo and multiple Tcfg. The first exploration and production licenses are expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2019.

The announcements will build on Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Petroleum Council’s (SPC) approval of ADNOC’s plans to appraise and develop new gas resources that will enable the UAE to achieve gas self-sufficiency, with the aim of transitioning to a net gas exporter, sustaining LNG production to 2040. The SPC also approved an increase in ADNOC’s oil production capacity to 4 MMbopd by the end of 2020 and 5 MMbpd by 2030, as well as ADNOC’s new five-year business plan and capital investment growth of AED 486 billion (U.S. $132.3 billion) between 2019-2023.

Dr. Al Jaber said: “During ADIPEC, we made a number of important announcements, including strategic partnerships with Total and Eni, as a direct result of the recent SPC approval of our new five-year business plan and long-term growth strategy. These new partnerships, along with our forthcoming collaborations with Saudi Aramco and Mubadala, will make significant contributions to the delivery of our 2030 growth strategy.

“The announcements also represent progress on our efforts to tap the energy resources needed to enable global economic growth in the 4th Industrial Age – a mission we have defined as Oil & Gas 4.0. We are on the brink of a new era of opportunity for the oil and gas industry – an era in which digital innovation is delivering unprecedented levels of prosperity and driving demand for our products. ADNOC is gearing up to meet this demand and, through creative partnerships, seize opportunities.”

“Our ADIPEC announcements are only the beginning of our next phase of rapid growth. There will be no let-up in the momentum we have created during ADIPEC. More significant announcements are in the pipeline as we focus on maximizing value from all our resources and unlocking increased and commercially viable production from our oil and gas reserves,” Dr. Al Jaber added.

In addition to the strategic partnership announcements with Total and Eni and MoU’s with Mubadala and Saudi Aramco, ADNOC also announced an $1.4 billion investment to upgrade and expand its Bu Hasa field, which will increase crude oil production capacity to 650,000 bpd. It also announced a framework agreement with the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd. (ISPRL) to explore the possibility of storing ADNOC crude oil at ISPRL’s underground oil storage facility, at Padur, in Karnataka. The agreement builds on an earlier agreement to store 5.86 million barrels of ADNOC crude oil at another ISPRL underground facility, in Mangalore.

At this year’s ADIPEC, ADNOC also announced its intention to extend to 2040 its gas supply agreement with ADNOC LNG, in coordination with ADNOC LNG’s joint venture partners, Mitsui, BP and Total. And on the sidelines of the conference, ADNOC hosted at its HQ senior oil, gas and technology leaders at the inaugural ADNOC artificial intelligence (AI) Forum to discuss the rise of AI and how, collectively, the oil and gas industry can accelerate AI advancements to unlock new value from it oil and gas resources. It also updated over 800 ADIPEC attendees on its new integrated gas strategy and downstream growth plans.

For the third year in a row, ADNOC also hosted its annual Business Partnership Forum at ADIPEC, during which it thanked the private sector for its support during the implementation phase of its new ICV program, as it delivers on its 2030 growth strategy. At the Forum, ADNOC announced its 2018 In-Country Value (ICV) spend – the amount ADNOC and its contractors spend on local goods and services – which will be over AED 18 billion, a significant year-on-year increase.

Reflecting on the recently concluded ADIPEC, Dr. Al Jaber said the record number of corporate CEOs, government ministers, policy-makers and innovators – from the world’s most prominent oil and gas majors – who attended the event demonstrated Abu Dhabi’s status as a thought leadership conveyor and a driving force in the global energy conversation.

Dr. Al Jaber continued: “ADIPEC has, again, set the agenda for the global energy conversation and positioned Abu Dhabi to play a central role in the growth of the global oil and gas industry. “We are at the beginning of a new era of opportunity. Historic shifts in global energy use are creating unprecedented demand for our products.