UAE brings forward 5m barrels per day production expansion to 2027

The board of Abu Dhabi's ADNOC endorsed plans on Monday to bring forward the company's five million barrel per day oil production capacity expansion to 2027 from a previous target of 2030, to meet rising global energy demand.

The United Arab Emirates' hydrocarbon reserves increased by 2 billion stock tank barrels (STB) of mostly Murban-grade crude and 1 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF) of natural gas in 2022, the state oil firm said in a statement.

The additional reserves increase the UAE's reserve base to 113 billion STB of oil and 290 TSCF of natural gas.

ADNOC's board of directors, which was chaired by the UAE's President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed on Monday, also approved the creation of ADNOC Gas.

A gas processing and marketing entity to be effective from January, the company will combine the operations, maintenance and marketing of ADNOC Gas Processing and ADNOC LNG into one consolidated entity.

ADNOC said it plans to float a minority stake in the new company on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in 2023.

A five-year business plan and capital expenditure of 550 billion dirhams ($150 billion) for the period 2023-2027 was also approved by the board to enable the company's growth strategy.

ADNOC will also create a low carbon solutions and international growth vertical focused on new energies, gas, LNG and chemicals. The board directed the firm to pursue a net zero by 2050 ambition to support the UAE's drive towards net zero carbon.

"The world needs maximum energy, minimum emissions and it needs all the energy solutions if we are to ensure global energy security," ADNOC's chief Sultan al-Jaber was quoted as saying in the statement. 

(Reuters)