The Middle East needs to maintain its role as one of the main energy suppliers to the world in addition to fuelling its own growth, says the head of ADNOC’s Gas Processing Division, Saif Sultan Al Nasseri.
Al Nasseri was recently delegated with the responsibility of Gas Processing Division in addition to his position as Planning Division manager at ADNOC’s Exploration and Production Directorate.
A board member of ADGAS and GASCO, he is also chairman of the Board Advisory Committee for both companies.
In his capacity at ADNOC, he is currently coordinating the E&P Directorate strategy formulation process, business planning, work programmes and performance management, where he liaise all areas of long, medium and short term planning activity.
Speaking ahead of the sixth Gas Arabia Summit to be held in Abu Dhabi from January 31 to February 2, Al Nasseri gave summit host, The Energy Exchange a brief interview.
Q: The Middle East has an abundance of gas resource but we see that with increasing export opportunities and rising domestic demands that the landscape is changing. In your opinion, how do you view the current market? Do you see challenges or opportunities in the road ahead?
A: Al Nasseri:
You are truly right the Middle East has an abundance of gas resources. In the past the Middle East was viewed as one of the main energy suppliers to the world, today the Middle East needs to keep this role in addition to fuelling its own growth.
The Middle Eastern countries have the great challenge of setting discreet priorities for the optimum utilisation of their gas resources, so that they may both sustain domestic economic development, as well as maintain their role as major exporter of energy (oil/gas), the energy that fuels other global economies’ development.
So to answer your question, yes I see many challenges but a lot more opportunities.
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Q: In recent times and in particular with the economic downturn, ADNOC have indeed been very successful in spearheading forwards with key oil and gas projects. At Ruwais we see TAKREER and BOROUGE moving forwards with their refining and petrochemical expansion plans and at GASCO further awards have recently been made for the Habshan and Shah Gas projects.
Looking ahead, are there any specific areas on the horizon for ADNOC to now consider?
A: Al Nasseri:
ADNOC’s position and reputation as a supplier of first choice is based on the strategy of taking the long view. ADNOC’s commitment to the market and the customers has always been that of meeting market hydrocarbon needs reliably and with due care to the environment. The underwritten projects you mention today have been in the pipeline for some years having been screened by ADNOC’s gate system.
Moving forward ADNOC has evolved in its organic growth, to match the market requirements and the societies it serves. This expansion includes the upstream with the increase in oil capacity and gas production, looking into more innovative ways of production.
For example for ZADCO’s expansion we moved from offshore rigs to onshore rigs on artificial islands to make use of rigs availability and new drilling technologies, this option will simply make better economical sense in the long run.
There is also the strategic project of linking the offshore gas with the onshore network through the integrated gas development project (IGD).
Downstream expansions of Takreer and Borouge is not just limited to quantities but also quality of products, like green diesel and the production of polypropylene
Our obligations are three fold, the people, the market, and the environment. To each, we have set targets and plans to fulfil the government’s directives and vision.
Q: We see that the US and Europe are currently experiencing a surge of interest in production and investment in unconventional gas resources in particular: shale gas, tight gas and coal bed methane.
As a result, in your opinion, do you expect to see many changes for Middle Eastern gas producers? Can we expect the region to ‘follow suit’ and start developing untapped reserves closer to home?
A: Dr Al Nasseri:
As I stated earlier the Middle East has abundance of gas sources, strategically our effort is caring for conventional reserves whilst some research work will look at unconventional reserves such as tight reservoirs and some special sour gas cases similar to the Shah field Development, currently in progress.
Q: One of the highly and widely public oil and gas topics of 2010 was the Macondo disaster experienced in the US, indeed at Gas Arabia we have a discussion panel dedicated to this topic.
Ahead of the event, can you tell us your thoughts on whether you feel the Middle East will experience a ripple effect from Macondo? Do you expect to see a tightening of safety and environmental scrutiny?
A: Dr Al Nasseri:
The event was by all means a sad affair in terms of the environment and the people affected. I think the industry will ponder greatly at this incident and there will be many lessons learnt from it, to that end we have spoken to our international partners who were affected by the disaster and requested to share their lessons learned, and where can we as a collective improve towards minimising these threats.
ADNOC has had comprehensive HSE operating guidelines based on internationally matured and well-developed Codes of Practice (CoP).
