Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Abu Dhabi to Invest $122 Bln in Oil After New Discovery


Mon 23 Nov 2020 | 07:10 AM
Taarek Refaat

Abu Dhabi will invest $ 122 billion in oil and natural gas until 2025, as it seeks to increase its production, refining and trade capacity, ignoring OPEC + production limits.

The Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported on Sunday that the Supreme Petroleum Council has approved the budget of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Abu Dhabi, which possesses most of the crude oil in the United Arab Emirates, has discovered an additional 2 billion barrels in conventional fields, bringing the UAE’s total reserves of oil to 107 billion barrels, according to WAM.

The country also discovered an additional 22 billion barrels of unconventional oil, which is difficult to extract and may not be recoverable .

According to the statement, ADNOC, the country's largest energy producer, wants to achieve the maximum possible value from oil in terms of production, refinery or trading. The state-owned company plans to increase its production to 5 million bpd by 2030 from about 4 million bpd.

OPEC has set the UAE's production at 2.6 million bpd until the end of 2020 as part of a plans to restrict supply and boost prices in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, officials in Abu Dhabi secretly floated the idea that the country might leave OPEC, an extraordinary move that would likely destabilize oil markets.

The Abu Dhabi government has also granted approval for ADNOC to develop hydrogen as a low-carbon energy source, and to award contracts to companies to explore onshore and offshore oil and gas fields.

OPEC members are set to meet next week to decide whether to raise production in 2021, as production limits have begun to ease since May, however, they may have to delay the rally as the second virus wave continues to deplete energy demand.