A few choice words by UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazru’i at the opening ceremony of the three-day Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) set the tone for what lies ahead for oil company executives who converged on the UAE capital on 10-13 November. The message was clear if subtle. The so-called legacy foreign partners can no longer rely on their dominant historic role in Abu Dhabi’s upstream oil and gas world: they will have to make way for new players.
With state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) revealing plans to raise oil production capacity beyond a previously targeted 3.5mn b/d in the next decade, the stakes are now higher. (CONTINUED - 2643 WORDS)
