Gas production from Abu Dhabi’s Shah field is set to be increased by 50% by 2021, according to the chief executive officer of Al Hosn Gas company, which is developing the project.
“We are planning to increase production to 1.5bn cubic feet (bcf) per day within five years from the present production capacity of 1bn cubic feet per day,” Saif Ahmad Al Ghafli, chief executive officer of Al Hosn Gas told the media at an event last week.
Al Hosn Gas is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and the US-based Occidental Petroleum.
The project began operations last year and reached its full capacity of 1bcf per day in the second quarter. The main purpose of the project is to produce usable gas from Shah’s high-sulphur field.
“We are really proud of this project. It has been done within a good time frame despite many challenges,” Al Ghafli said.
The gas field located about 210km southwest of Abu Dhabi city will contribute significantly to the energy needs of Abu Dhabi and the UAE for over 30 years, he added.
The UAE has been focussing on developing gas projects to meet the rising demand for electricity generation.
A gas project being developed by German company Wintershall is in progress near Shuwaihat in the western region of Abu Dhabi.
The Bab sour gas project faced challenges after Royal Dutch Shell pulled out citing rising costs and technical difficulties.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the UAE holds the seventh-largest proven reserves of natural gas in the world, at slightly more than 215tn cubic feet (tcf) but it has a high sulphur content that makes it highly corrosive and difficult to process.
The UAE mainly imports gas to generate electricity from Qatar through the Dolphin energy pipeline.
