ADNOC, Petronas to explore collaboration in Abu Dhabi's oil and gas sector

Dubai — The UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has signed an agreement with Malaysia's Petronas to explore collaboration in the oil and gas sector of Abu Dhabi and in the low-carbon energy industry in the first such partnership between the two national oil producers.

"Under the terms of the agreement, ADNOC and Petronas will jointly explore opportunities for collaboration in the exploration, development, and production of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources in the emirate of Abu Dhabi," ADNOC said in a statement March 10.

This is ADNOC's first partnership with Petronas and builds on the national oil producer's pivot toward Asia, which consumes most of its oil.

The two companies will also assess collaboration in the domestic and international downstream and trading sectors, as well as clean technology, the companies said.

"ADNOC and Petronas have also agreed to explore potential partnership opportunities in trading, including the optimization of crude and feedstock supply and refined product offtake," ADNOC said.

"In addition, they will look to collaborate to identify technology solutions as well as on hydrogen and research and development in areas of mutual interest including enhanced hydrocarbon recovery and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS)."

Hydrogen and CCUS

ADNOC has been striking a number of hydrogen deals with Asian countries.

The national oil producer said March 4 it is exploring opportunities to work with South Korea's GS Energy on blue hydrogen and carrier fuel export such as blue ammonia.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry struck the first fuel ammonia cooperation deal with ADNOC in January as Tokyo intends to develop its supply chain of blue ammonia, possibly in the Middle East by the late 2020s.

ADNOC is also partnering with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds Mubadala Investment Co. and ADQ to develop a hydrogen industry in the UAE.

ADNOC currently produces around 300,000 mt/year of hydrogen for its downstream operations and plans to expand it to more than 500,000 mt/year.

The Abu Dhabi company also plans to boost its capacity to capture CO2 from its own gas plants to 5 million mt/year of CO2 by 2030, from 800,000 mt/year now.

Masdar agreement

Separately, Petronas signed with Abu Dhabi-based clean energy company Masdar, which is owned by Mubadala, a memorandum of understanding for collaboration in renewables and hydrogen in Asia and the Middle East.

"Both parties will explore joint participation in large-scale solar and wind opportunities for utilities, commercial and industrial customers, focusing primarily on Asia," Petronas said.

"The partnership will also explore opportunities for the joint production of green hydrogen. Petronas is gearing toward commercializing low-carbon hydrogen produced from its existing facilities and is pursuing commercial production of green hydrogen in the near future."

In November 2020, Petronas announced its commitment toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Petronas New Energy, the renewables arm of the parent company, currently has over 1 GW of solar capacity in operation and development in India and Southeast Asia.