ABU DHABI

Strategic value add partnerships are key to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (Adnoc) growth plans as the company seeks to expand its business by opening new markets and offering diversified products, according to Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of State and Adnoc Group CEO.

“In this new energy era, the success of our industry and our companies will be driven by long-term, value-add and integrated partnership models across the value chain that leverage innovative technology and market access,” he was quoted as saying this in a statement issued by Adnoc on Tuesday.

He was speaking at Gastech, the gas and LNG conference and exhibition, taking place in Japan. “Such integrated partnerships will require energy companies to think, plan and act differently to deliver future growth,” Dr Al Jaber added.

He emphasised that technology and partnerships are at the heart of Adnoc’s growth strategy and five-year business plan, which is focused on driving efficiency, improving performance and maximising value to deliver a more profitable upstream, a more valuable downstream, a more economic and sustainable supply of gas and world class talent.

The company’s crude output capacity is slated to increase to 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2018 while its sour gas production, from its Al Hosn facility, will be expanded by 50 per cent. Adnoc also plans to triple production of petrochemical and higher value products.

Dr Al Jaber said Asia is an increasingly important market for energy producers, noting its share of global gas imports will grow from half to two thirds of demand by 2040, as global demand increases by 70 per cent.

While advances in technology, combined with enhanced recovery techniques that are maximising productivity, are enabling producers to keep pace with the growth in demand, Dr Al Jaber said lack of investment in infrastructure needs to be addressed.

“Today, what is needed is better infrastructure that efficiently links producers to end users,” he said. “This will require nearly $3 trillion in investment, according to the IEA, to upgrade the global gas distribution system, between now and 2040. That is a level of funding that can only be achieved through creative, committed long-term partnerships at every level, between companies, between countries, and between the public and private sectors.”