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29 March 2024

Adco invests Dh19bn in oil capacity expansion

ADCO General Manager Kindi says new investments would allow the UAE to maintain its position as one of the world’s top oil producers (FILE)

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By Nadim Kawach

The UAE’s largest oil producing firm is pushing ahead with an ambitious programme to lift its sustainable crude output capacity by nearly 400,000 barrels per day at a cost of more than Dh19 billion, its general manager has said.

The Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (Adco), one of the world’s largest oil producing firms, is concentrating expansion work on its onshore fields Asab, Sahil and Shah while engineering work for one of the region’s biggest oil fields, Bab, would be completed in early 2011, Abdul Monem Al Kindi was quoted as saying on Monday by the semi-official daily Al Ittihad.

“Development is progressing according to the timetable at each project…we have completed nearly 47 per cent of Asab project and 34 per cent of Shah and Sahil…engineering work at Bab will be finished in the first quarter of 2011.”

He said the projects would lift Asab’s output capacity from 285,000 bpd to 375,000 bpd while production at Shah would increase from 50,000 bpd to 70,000 bpd and that at Qusahwira from 30,000 bpd to 40,000 bpd. The remaining capacity increase will come from the giant Bab field, he added.

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.

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
In previous remarks, Kindi put total investment by Adco at around $5.3 billion (Dh19.5 billion) until 2017, when capacity will climb to 1.8 million bpd, an increase of around 400,000 bpd from the present output.

Kindi said the projects are part of an overall oil capacity expansion plan to increase the UAE’s total sustainable crude output capacity to nearly 3.5 million bpd. He declined to specify the country’s present capacity but industry sources estimated it at nearly 2.7 million bpd at the end of 2009.

The projects are in line with a strategy drawn up by the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), Abu Dhabi’s top oil decision-making body, to expand the emirate’s hydrocarbon output capacity and develop its reserves.

Kindi said this would allow the UAE to maintain its position as one of the world’s top oil producers and to remain among the largest five oil and gas powers.

“In fact, our present output capacity is much more than 1.4 million bpd but we are talking about sustainable production…our current development plan will focus on increase sustainable output and at the same time maintaining present capacity.”

Adco, which controls Abu Dhabi’s onshore oil activities, is one of the largest oil producing companies 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 massive development programme to increase sustainable output and maintain capacity.

Abu Dhabi is the main oil producer in the UAE, which aims to boost its crude output capacity above three million barrels per day in the next few years.

Official figures showed Abu Dhabi alone is pumping nearly Dh30 billion during 2005-2011 into oil projects, which target both its onshore and offshore areas, mainly the super-giant Upper Zakum and other major fields.

Around $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion) would be spent on the development of the offshore Upper Zakum to add 200,000 bpd to its 550,000 bpd capacity.

An equivalent sum has also been allocated for the expansion of the mammoth Umm Shaif offshore field and $two billion for the Nasr Field development by the Abu Dhabi Marine Oil Company (Adma-Opco).

In 2009, the UAE’s average oil output was around 2.3 million bpd, leaving an idle capacity of more than 400,000 bpd. The output was far below the 2008 production of around 2.6 million bpd and was a result of a collective OPEC agreement to trim supplies to prop up prices.