The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will continue to unlock smart growth opportunities as it navigates the evolving energy landscape and builds on the momentum gained during a record-breaking edition of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition Conference (ADIPEC).
Provisional figures show an increase in visitor attendance by 7 percent, at 155,000; a 21 percent increase in the number of national and international oil companies participating; a 29 percent increase in the number of technical abstracts received, at 3,652 and over 100 government ministers and industry CEOs taking part in the conference sessions.
At the 4-day event, which ended on November 14, ADNOC made a series of strategic announcements to drive value as it doubles down on the mission of Oil and Gas 4.0 outlined by His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) while delivery ADIPEC’s opening keynote address. In the address, H.E. Dr. Al Jaber announced ADNOC will join major international oil companies (IOCs) as founding partners of the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD) – the new exchange that will be set up by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in Abu Dhabi to host the world’s first Murban crude oil futures contracts. The Murban Futures Contract will replace retroactive pricing with forward pricing, and help ADNOC to capture more value from every barrel of crude it produces.
Following the announcement, ADNOC explained its marketing, supply and trading strategy to over 400 oil and gas executives at the ADNOC Trading Forum. It briefed them on its decision to adopt the new pricing mechanism for its Murban crude and provided further details of other initiatives it is pursuing to become a more proactive and adaptive marketer and trader, in the areas of shipping, storage, and trading.
H.E. Dr. Al Jaber said: “During ADIPEC, we made a number of important announcements to help us unlock and maximize value from our assets and resources as we respond to the fast-evolving energy landscape. The new partnership and sales agreements we concluded have laid a solid foundation for the next phase of our growth and underscore our efforts to efficiently and responsibly tap the energy resources required to meet the world’s growing energy demand. We will build on the momentum we have created during ADIPEC and confidently move forward to deliver even greater levels of performance in the coming months.
“In an era where the oil and gas industry is being disrupted on multiple levels, ADNOC is applying innovative technologies, embedding sustainability, leveraging value-add partnerships and empowering our people to ensure we capture the opportunities of the fourth industrial age and deliver on the mission of Oil and Gas 4.0. We are also reinforcing our role as the primary catalyst for the UAE’s economic growth and diversification and will continue to work with the private sector to drive sustainable returns to the nation as we deliver our 2030 growth strategy.”
The importance of In-Country Value (ICV) and ADNOC’s role in stimulating commercial opportunities for the private sector was highlighted at ADNOC’s 4th annual Business Partnership Forum, where the company announced more than AED 26 billion ($7 billion) will flow back into the UAE’s economy in 2019 through its ICV Program and thanked the private sector for embedding ICV into their procurement processes.
At ADIPEC, ADNOC took further strides to embed innovation and cutting-edge technology across its entire value chain, signing an agreement with Group 42 (G42) – an Abu Dhabi based artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and supercomputing company – to establish a joint venture to develop and commercialize market-leading AI products for the oil and gas industry.
ADNOC also announced its partnership with Total to deploy drones and unmanned vehicles to collect 3D seismic data as it expands its search for new oil and gas resources throughout the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The pilot project using Total’s Multiphysics Exploration Technologies Integrated System (METIS®) – the world’s first automated seismic acquisition system – will see thousands of sensors deployed by air using a fleet of drones and later retrieved by unmanned ground vehicles.
In its upstream business, ADNOC announced a AED 1.8 billion ($489 million) investment to upgrade its giant Bab onshore field located 160 kilometers southwest of Abu Dhabi city. The investment will sustain long-term crude oil production capacity of the field at 485,000 barrels per day (bpd) and support ADNOC’s target to achieve oil production capacity of 4 million bpd by the end of 2020 and 5 million bpd by 2030.
To enable ADNOC’s production capacity targets and gas self-sufficiency objective, ADNOC Drilling, a subsidiary of ADNOC, announced a major rig fleet expansion program at its 15th annual Rig Owners’ Seminar. The program will see ADNOC Drilling acquire dozens of land, offshore, and island rigs by 2025.
As ADNOC grows its upstream portfolio, the company is expanding its downstream business and seeking new markets for its growing portfolio of products. To support the downstream expansion, ADNOC signed a framework agreement with China’s Rongsheng Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (Rongsheng) to explore domestic and international downstream growth opportunities, including the supply of liquified natural gas to Rongsheng.
On the same day, ADNOC LNG, a subsidiary of ADNOC, concluded supply agreements with subsidiaries of BP and TOTAL, effectively booking out the majority of its liquified natural gas (LNG) production through Q1 2022 as it continues to expand its footprint into new regions and markets.
Other headlines at ADIPEC included ADNOC’s long-term agreement with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) – the largest industrial company in the UAE outside the oil and gas sector – to supply EGA with the majority of the calcined petroleum coke produced by its new Carbon Black and Delayed Coker (CBDC) facility in Ruwais. Calcined petroleum coke is used by EGA in the aluminium smelting process.
On the eve of ADIPEC, ADNOC hosted its 4th annual Abu Dhabi CEO Roundtable, which brought together 30 chief executives of the world’s leading oil, gas, and petrochemical companies, including Saudi Aramco, Total, Eni, BP, CNPC, and LUKOIL to discuss critical issues facing the energy sector.
