Adnoc is considering a range of applications from International Oil Companies (IOCs), as the firm decides whether to continue working with western oil majors or to allow Asian buyers to purchase stakes in the UAE’s largest oil fields.
The UAE’s oil minister, His Eminence Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui, told news agency Reuters that Adnoc had received interest from several companies, including those western majors whose previous concession had expired.
“Most of the existing partners are involved and expressed keen interest to participate,” he told reporters at the Petrotech 2014 conference.
ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP all previously held stakes of 9.5%. The agreement, which had been in place for decades, expired in January 2014. Several large Asian energy companies have now expressed an interest in buying stakes in the fields. This would offer the UAE the chance to strengthen relations with key oil importing nations such as Japan, Korea and China.
The minister, however, said that western companies have agreed to continue working with Adnoc until new contracts are finalised.
“There is an arrangement between us and those companies to continue until we finalise the contract. Now, Adnoc is responsible for sale of all of the crude,” he said.
Adnoc will look to any potential partner to provide efficient and innovative ways to maximise their resources.
“There was a criteria that Adnoc announced. This was based on technology because the challenges moving forward are different than the challenges we had when we started,” the minister said.
The UAE has the capacity to produce 3 million barrels per day (bpd) and is currently producing 2.8 million bpd.
“Our production goes up and down depending on the market demand. The priority is that the market should be well supplied with OPEC crude and the UAE is playing its role in that context,” the minister said.
Adnoc aims to raise output from its largest onshore oilfields to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in two years as the country aims for a 3.5 million bpd export capacity by 2017, he said.
Adnoc has a term contract to supply 230,000 bpd to Indian refiners but actual purchases go up to as high as 280,000 bpd as these companies also purchase from the spot market.
“As some members of OPEC like Libya and Iraq are experiencing difficulties, so we are producing as much as we can to ensure that markets are well-supplied,” he added.
