Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. plans capital investment of about $100 billion during the next 5 years as it assesses Abu Dhabi’s unconventional resources and seeks downstream investments abroad.
In a statement announcing Supreme Petroleum Council approval of its budget, the company said the pursuit of “international downstream strategic and commercially viable investments” aims at “reshaping ADNOC into a global company.”
The statement said ADNOC plans to increase its crude refining capacity by 60% and to more than triple petrochemical production to 14.4 million tonnes/year by 2025 “through a staged expansion plan aimed at initially optimizing its existing assets to grow and diversify its products portfolio.”
ADNOC said an aromatics project will convert naphtha, currently exported, into gasoline and aromatics. And “a large project to enhance the crude processing flexibility of its 900,000-b/d refining system will be taken forward.”
ADNOC said it is on track to increase oil production capacity to 3.5 million b/d by the end of next year and to improve drilling time by 30% by 2019.
Its plan to explore unconventional resources focuses on natural gas and gas liquids, according to Sultan Al Jaber, minister of state and ADNOC Group chief executive officer.
Aiming to ensure economic supply to meet growing gas needs of the United Arab Emirates, ADNOC will assess undeveloped tight reservoirs, tap gas caps, and expand sour gas production. It has begun drilling tight reservoirs, according to the statement.
ADNOC recently confirmed plans to offer 10-20% of ADNOC Distribution, its fuel distribution unit, in an initial public offering that would be its first placement of shares in a subsidiary in public markets.
