Adnoc plans to sign new partners
Adnoc would be making additional strategic announcements in the coming weeks
Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and Adnoc Group CEO
dubai — The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) said on Monday that it would be making strategic announcements in the coming weeks, including new partners for the Ghasha concession, which is the company’s offshore ultra-sour gas mega project that consists of Hail, Ghasha, Dalma and other offshore fields.
It would also accelerate plans to increase its oil production capacity to four million and five million barrels per day by 2020 and 2030, respectively.
The diversified energy and petrochemicals group, which currently produces about three million barrels of oil and 10.5 billion cubic feet of raw gas per day, said it would also speed up delivery of its new integrated gas strategy.
Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and Adnoc Group CEO, said there would be no let-up in the momentum gained by the company during a record-breaking Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec).
In a statement, the company said other upcoming announcements would centre on the Abu Dhabi government’s decision earlier this year to open 6 oil and gas blocks for competitive bidding. The blocks potentially hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The first exploration and production licences are expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2019.
The group said the new announcements would build on Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Petroleum Council’s (SPC) approval of its 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 four million barrels per day by the end of 2020 and five million barrels per day by 2030, as well as its new five-year business plan and capital investment growth of Dh486 billion between 2019-2023.
“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,” said Dr Al Jaber.
He said the announcements also represented progress on Adnoc’s efforts to tap the energy resources needed to enable global economic growth in the 4th Industrial Age — a mission it has 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 the opportunities of Oil and Gas 4.0.”
The announcements at Adipec are only the beginning of our next phase of rapid growth. More significant announcements are in the pipeline as the group focuses on maximising value from all its resources and unlocking increased and commercially viable production from our oil and gas reserves, said Dr Al Jaber.
In addition to the strategic partnership announcements, Adnoc also announced a Dh5.1 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 its LNG’s joint venture partners, Mitsui, BP and Total.