UAE’s ADNOC plans new ultra-sour gas projects to meet domestic demand
State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co is planning to develop a number of ultra-sour offshore gas fields in the northwestern region of the UAE, a senior company official said.
“Tapping into undeveloped gas reservoirs is part of ADNOC’s focused strategy to drive a more sustainable and economic gas supply,” the director of upstream, Abdul Munim al-Kindy said, according to a report by The National newspaper.
The development could include the Hail, Ghasha, Delma, Nasr, and Shuwaihat gas fields, which lie in shallow waters in the Persian Gulf, Kindy said.
ADNOC is expected to receive tenders for the front-end engineering and design of production and processing facilities, which will be housed on a series of new artificial islands.
“ADNOC has capitalized on its success and experience in ultra-sour gas development to access a number of undeveloped sour gas and oil reservoirs,” Kindy said.
The company has made gas development a major strategic priority to meet the country’s increasing gas demand, and supporting the Abu Dhabi government’s push towards further industrial development and diversification in the UAE’s leading emirate.
It has recently been considering relaunching its stalled plans for development of the Bab sour gas field.
The estimated $10 billion onshore gas project was being developed in joint venture with Shell, until the company pulled out early last year, ahead of its final investment decision, citing technical challenges and costs.
ADNOC has previously worked with the US-based Occidental Petroleum on the UAE’s main sour gas project, known as Al-Hosn Gas, processing 1 Bcf/d of sour gas from the Shah sour gas field in the western region of the UAE.
It took over from the original joint venture partner, ConocoPhillips, which pulled out of the scheme in 2010.
Al-Hosn currently produces 500 MMcf/d of sales gas, along with 4,400 mt/d of natural gas liquids and 33,000 b/d of condensates.
ADNOC announced plans in November 2016 to expand capacity at Al-Hosn by as much as 50% to 1.5 Bcf/d.