Adco to add 100,000bpd capacity

The UAE’s largest oil producing firm is planning to add 100,000 barrels per day to its output capacity by the end of this year as it is pushing ahead with a $multi-billion programme to attain its 1.8-million-bpd target in 2017.

The Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) said its had already listed capacity to nearly 1.37 million bpd at the end of 2011 and new projects would push output to 1.47 million bpd at the end of 2012.

The company, one of the world’s largest 10 oil firms, said it would also award new contracts worth around $2-3 billion in the second quarter of 2013 within its last capacity development phase.

“There are instruction from the father company ADNOC to complete all these projects on time,” ADCO’s general manager, Abdul Monem Al Kindi, told the semi official Arabic language daily Alittihad.

He said the plan aims to boost Asab field’s capacity from 290,000 bpd to 355,000 bpd and that of Sahel from 75,000 to 100,000 bpd. Shah field will also be expanded from 50,000 to 70,000 bpd while production at Bab, one of the largest onshore oilfields in the Middle East, will be raised from around 300,000 bpd to nearly 380,000 bpd.

In previous comments, Kindi said the projects are part of an overall oil expansion plan to increase the UAE’s total sustainable crude output capacity to nearly 3.5 million bpd from an estimated 2.8 million bpd.

ADCO, which controls Abu Dhabi’s onshore oil activities, is one of the largest oil producers in the world, with its proven crude reserves exceeding 20 billion barrels. The company, which is 60 per cent controlled by ADNOC and 40 per cent by foreign partners, has been locked in a $5.3-billion development programme to increase sustainable output and maintain capacity.

Spread over 1,200 square kilometers, more than area of Bahrain, Bab field is one of the world’s largest onshore hydrocarbon reservoirs, with more than 10 oil and gas bearing zones. It is located around 85 kilometres southwest of Abu Dhabi city.

The two other major oil producing firms in the Emirate are the Abu Dhabi Marine Operations Company (ADMA-OPCO) and ZADCO, which operates Zakum field, one of the largest offshore oil fields in the world.

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