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Adnoc Gas to increase capacity by 20% in five years

12 August 2024

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Adnoc Gas has announced it is making progress on core growth projects that are expected to increase the company’s natural gas processing capacity by 20% within the next five years.

The subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Group) has made significant investments in those growth projects, the largest of which is the liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal facility in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.

Peter van Driel, chief financial officer at Adnoc Gas, provided updates on some of these projects during a press conference held to discuss the company’s financial results for the second quarter of 2024.

Adnoc Gas announced an adjusted net income of $1.19bn in the first quarter of 2024, a year-on-year growth of 21%. Revenues for the second quarter were registered at $6.076bn, a year-on-year increase of 13%, the company said on 12 August.

Ruwais LNG facility

Adnoc Gas expects to commission the upcoming Ruwais LNG export terminal in 2028. The company awarded the full engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract and achieved the final investment decision (FID) for the project in June.

A consortium of France’s Technip Energies, Japan-based JGC Corporation and Abu Dhabi-owned NMDC Energy was awarded the EPC contract, worth $5.5bn, Adnoc announced on 12 June.

The LNG export terminal in Ruwais will have the capacity to produce about 9.6 million tonnes a year (t/y) of LNG from two processing trains, each with a capacity of 4.8 million t/y. When the project is commissioned, Adnoc’s LNG production capacity will more than double to about 15 million t/y.

Estidama advances

Adnoc Gas said it expects EPC works on its project to expand its sales gas pipeline network across the UAE, also known as Estidama, to complete in the third quarter of 2025.

Through the Estidama scheme, Adnoc Gas aims to extend the existing 3,200-kilometre pipeline network to over 3,500km, enabling the transportation of higher volumes of natural gas to customers across the UAE. EPC works on the estimated $2bn-plus Estidama project have been divided into seven packages.

Adnoc Gas, in July, awarded contracts worth a total of $550m for two EPC packages of the Estidama project.

The combined packages 4+7 of the Estidama project were awarded to the UAE unit of Oman's Galfar Engineering & Contracting, valued at $295m. Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy won package 6, which is worth $255m.

Habshan CO2 recovery project

Adnoc Gas awarded UK-headquartered Petrofac the main EPC contract, valued at $615m, for the Habshan carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery project in October last year. The planned Habshan carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) facility will have the capacity to capture and permanently store 1.5 million t/y of CO2 within geological formations deep underground.

In its presentation to journalists on 12 August, Adnoc Gas said it expects the Habshan CO2 recovery project to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2026.

Project Meram

Adnoc Gas anticipates EPC work on its Maximise Ethane Recovery & Monetisation (Meram) project to finish in the last quarter of 2025.

The company awarded a $3.6bn contract for Project Meram to a consortium of Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy and Spanish contractor Tecnicas Reunidas in August 2023. The consortium began execution of EPC work on the project in the same month, as MEED previously reported.

The strategic Meram project aims to achieve dual objectives, Adnoc stated. The first goal is to increase ethane extraction by 35%-40% from Adnoc Gas’ existing onshore facilities in the Habshan gas processing complex by constructing new gas processing facilities. The second goal is to unlock further value from existing feedstock and deliver it to Ruwais via a 120km natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline.

Other growth projects

Regarding its other core growth projects, Adnoc Gas said it intends to complete its P5 projects in 2027. Adnoc Gas’ P5 projects are aligned with supporting its parent company's target of achieving an oil production potential of 5 million barrels a day (b/d) by 2027.

“P5 is a set of activities to accommodate the 5 million b/d [Adnoc Group target],” Van Driel told journalists.

Separately, Adnoc Gas said it now expects EPC work on the second phase of its integrated gas development expansion project (IGD-E2) to complete in the first quarter of 2025.

A consortium of Tecnicas Reunidas and Abu Dhabi’s Target Engineering Construction Company is executing EPC works on the IGD-E2 project, which is estimated to be worth about $1.4bn. The project will allow Adnoc Gas’ Habshan plant to process an additional 200 to 400 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of offshore gas. Its output currently stands at 1.4 billion cf/d.

The Bab Gas Cap development project, which has seen delays since being initiated a few years ago, is expected to complete in 2028, Adnoc Gas said.

Lastly, Adnoc Gas also expects its LNG2.0 project, through which it plans to increase ethane output and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its LNG production complex on Das Island, to complete in 2028.

Italian contractor Saipem and France-based Technip Energies are participating in a feed-to-EPC contest for the project, MEED previously reported. Adnoc Gas will select the contractor that submits the most competitive front-end engineering and design (feed) proposal for executing EPC works. This constitutes the basic method of a feed-to-EPC competition.

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Indrajit Sen

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