ADNOC announces gas discovery in Abu Dhabi offshore block

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company - known as ADNOC - announced on Thursday 3 February the discovery of offshore gas near the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This is the first gas discovery from the offshore exploration permits granted by the Emirate. 

According to ADNOC, the results from the first well in Block 2, drilled by Italy's Eni, show that there are between 1.5 and 2 trillion standard cubic feet of unrefined natural gas in the offshore area explored.

This finding demonstrates the success of ADNOC's bidding for blocks awarded, and its initiative to expand relationships with various strategic partnerships. In the case of Block 2, exploration permits were awarded to the consortium led by Eni and PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) in 2019 as part of ADNOC's first round of competitive block bidding. 

Dr Sultan bin Ahmed al-Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and CEO of ADNOC, referred to this success during the statement. He said the discovery showed "how ADNOC's initiative to expand relationships with strategic partnerships" enabled them to "accelerate the exploration and development of Abu Dhabi's untapped hydrocarbon resources".

In addition, Dr Al-Jaber congratulated his partners - Eni and PTTEP - on the achievement. He also looked forward to working with all their strategic partners to continue to explore and exploit Abu Dhabi's hydrocarbon resources in a sustainable manner, and thus stay ahead of "the world's growing demand for low-carbon energy".

Offshore Block 2 covers an area of 4,033 square kilometres northwest of Abu Dhabi. The discovery in the block was made possible by the world's largest combined onshore and offshore three-dimensional (3D) mega-seismic survey currently underway in Abu Dhabi.

ADNOC Upstream CEO Yaser Saeed al-Mazrouei referred to the survey and said the Block 2 discoveries - along with those in Block 4 - "leveraged insights from ADNOC's ongoing 3D mega-seismic survey, which supports the important role the survey is playing for us and our strategic partners as it utilises cutting-edge technologies to help identify new hydrocarbon resources in Abu Dhabi".

Drilling operations in Block 2 continue to progress, with deeper drilling to fully unlock the block's full resource volume, and further explore the block's potential. Operations also continue in the exploration areas of offshore Blocks 1 and 3, which are also owned by Eni and PTTEP.

This achievement comes on the heels of the announcement in late 2021 of the discovery of the equivalent of 1 billion barrels of oil in the Block 4 Onshore Exploration Concession by INPEX and JODCO.

ADNOC launched the first and second rounds of competitive Abu Dhabi block tenders in 2018 and 2019, offering a suite of significant onshore and offshore blocks to international companies on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi. Based on existing data from detailed petroleum system studies, seismic surveys, exploration and appraisal well data, estimates suggest that the blocks contain several billion barrels of oil and several trillion cubic feet of natural gas.