Dh486 billion approved for Adnoc growth plans

Dubai - The plan includes Adnoc's strategy to become self-sufficient and a net gas exporter.

Abu Dhabi's Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) on Sunday approved Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's (Adnoc) new integrated gas strategy and plans to increase its oil production capacity to 4 million barrels per day (mmbpd) at the end of 2020 and 5 mmbpd by 2030.

The SPC's approval of Adnoc's gas strategy will add potential resources that will enable the UAE to achieve gas self-sufficiency, with the aim of potentially transitioning to a net gas exporter. At its meeting, the SPC announced new discoveries of gas in place, totaling 15 trillion standard cubic feet. It also announced new discoveries of 1 billion barrels of oil in place and approved Adnoc's new five-year business plan and capital investment growth of Dh486 billion ($132.33 billion) between 2019 to 2023.

The SPC meeting was presided over by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Vice-Chairman of the SPC.

Sheikh Mohammed reaffirmed the support of the UAE President, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for Adnoc's transformation into a performance-led, more commercially minded organization and its focus on creating long-term, sustainable value to enable the UAE's economic ambitions. He also expressed the SPC's recognition of Adnoc's strong financial and operational performance, its use of creative and strategic partnerships to unlock and drive substantial value across the entire business and its strong commitment to maximizing in-country value.

The gas strategy will sustain LNG production to 2040 and allow Adnoc to seize incremental LNG and gas-to-chemicals growth opportunities, where they arise, from the UAE's dynamic demand/supply position and evolving energy mix.

Adnoc's integrated oil and gas strategy underpins its Dh165 billion downstream investment plans announced in May, which will see the company triple production of petrochemicals to 14.4 million tonnes per annum by 2025. In May, at its Downstream Investment Forum, Adnoc unveiled a blueprint to create the world's largest integrated refining and petrochemicals complex in Ruwais, which will enable it to further stretch the value of every barrel it produces. In addition to being used for power generation and other industrial uses, natural gas is the fuel that powers most chemical and refining processes.

Through a combined program of strategic partnerships and investments, Adnoc will increase its range and volume of high-value downstream products, secure better access to growth markets around the world and create a manufacturing ecosystem in Ruwais that will stimulate the creation of in-country value, private-sector growth and specialized job opportunities.

Meanwhile, the announcement of the discovery of significant new oil reserves endorses the Abu Dhabi government's historic decision, earlier this year, to open six geographical oil and gas blocks for competitive bidding. Based on existing data from detailed petroleum system studies, seismic surveys, log files and core samples from hundreds of appraisal wells, estimates suggest these new blocks hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The first exploration and production licenses are expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2019.

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com