World Needs More Energy, Lower Emissions: Adnoc

Abu Dhabi is to invest in gas production and "unlock the country's vast reserves of gas" from gas caps and undeveloped reservoirs in order to help satisfy the world's demand for cleaner energy, the CEO of the national oil company Adnoc told the World Energy Congress in his capital September 9.

It is the first time that the WEC had taken place in the Gulf in its 90-year history, which Sultan Ahmad Al Jaber said was testimony to his country's commitments to a lower carbon future and for sustainable economic growth. The theme of the conference is energy for prosperity.

In his keynote speech, Ahmad Al Jaber said the world will rely on oil and gas for many decades to come, and that keeping up with current demand would cost $11 trillion, but without giving a timeframe for this. He said it is clear that the world needs more energy and lower emissions and he said that Abu Dhabi was "perfectly placed" for the shift in energy demand from west to east and for the new value-added commercial relationships needed for sustainable returns, including public-private partnerships. These can involve technology sharing, he said.

Abu Dhabi has low carbon intensity oil and gas production and methane emissions and is home to a carbon capture, use and storage plant that it brought into operation in 2011. He said this would be expanded six times in the next decade. 

The country's oil production though will also rise, from 4mn barrels/day next year to 5mn b/d by 2030. Three more Europes will be added to global demand in the next two decades, and this will take a "full, diversified energy mix," he said.