International oil and gas giants Shell, BP and Total Energies as well as Japan’s Mitsui & Co. have agreed to buy 10 percent each in a new LNG project in the United Arab Emirates, according to anonymous sources familiar with the plans. Bloomberg on friday.
Big oil companies continue to bet on rising demand for gas and LNG over the coming years, with international companies set to invest in Abu Dhabi’s national oil company ADNOC’s Ruwais LNG project.
BP, TotalEnergies and Mitsui are currently partners in the UAE’s only existing LNG export plant, on Das Island.
Last month, ADNOC took a final investment decision to proceed with the Ruwais LNG project, which will more than double the UAE’s existing LNG production capacity.
Ruwais LNG will consist of two 4.8 million tonnes per annum (mmtpa) LNG liquefaction units with a total capacity of 9.6 million tonnes per annum, more than doubling ADNOC’s existing LNG production capacity to approximately 15 million tonnes per annum as it builds an international LNG portfolio.
The project, to be built in Al Ruwais Industrial City in the Al Dhafra district of Abu Dhabi, will be the first LNG export facility in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to run on clean electricity and one of the lowest carbon intensity LNG plants in the world, according to ADNOC.
The UAE’s state-owned energy giant also signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project worth about $5.5 billion (AED 20.2 billion).
ADNOC has been betting big on LNG in recent months, buying minority stakes in LNG projects overseas, including in the United States, as it seeks to expand domestic production and export capacity.
In May, ADNOC announced its first strategic investment in the United States with the purchase of an 11.7% stake in Phase 1 of NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG export project in Texas. ADNOC also signed a 20-year agreement with NextDecade to offtake LNG from Rio Grande LNG Train 4.
The Abu Dhabi Group also announced in May that it had acquired a 10 percent stake in an LNG project off the coast of Mozambique as it continues to expand its international natural gas business.
Article by Tsvetana Paraskova from Oilprice.com
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