Abu Dhabi to link gas facilities

Abu Dhabi has launched an ambitious project to link its massive offshore gas facilities with onshore networks as part of an ongoing development plan in its hydrocarbon sector, an official has said.

The government-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), one of the world’s largest oil firms, is carrying out the project which also involves heavy investment in oilfield capacity expansions, said Saif Al Nasseri, Planning Division Manager and Gas Processing Division Manager, Exploration and Production Directorate at ADNOC.

In an interview with the London-based Energy Exchange ahead of the Gas Arabia conference in Abu Dhabi at the end of this month, Nasseri said ADNOC’s position as a hydrocarbon supplier of first choice is based on the strategy of taking the long view.

He said 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.”

“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,” he said.

“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 on 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).”

Nasseri said downstream expansions of Takreer and Borouge, two other ADNOC affiliates, 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.”

Replying to a question, he said the Middle East controls massive oil and gas resources and has always been viewed as the main supplier of hydrocarbons 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 utilization 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,” he said.

“So to answer your question, yes I see many challenges but a lot more opportunities.”

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