(Bloomberg) – The United Arab Emirates and Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to expand the nation’s oil production capacity.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. will work with Exxon to boost capacity at the offshore Upper Zakum field, the UAE company said in a statement Friday. The site, where Japan’s Inpex Corp. is also a partner, currently can produce more than 1 million bpd. ADNOC didn’t specify the new target.
Increasing capacity is a touchy subject for the UAE and its partners in OPEC+, which puts limits on output. The nation’s current cutbacks as part of OPEC+ policy leave some capacity, which cost billions of dollars to add, lying idle.
ADNOC’s current capacity is 4.85 million bpd, according to its website, while its OPEC+ quota would allow it to pump just shy of 3.1 million bpd in June. Future additions, which can take years to complete, would widen that gap.
The Gulf energy giant is in the midst of a $150 billion spending plan focused primarily on raising crude production capacity and making the country self-sufficient in natural gas. That blueprint targets 5 million bpd. ADNOC could reach that by the end of this year.
One person who hasn’t been able to get enough of the local oil is U.S. President Donald Trump. Officials signed energy and other deals Friday morning at an Abu Dhabi meeting that included ADNOC Chief Executive Officer Sultan Al Jaber.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. CEO Vicki Hollub also attended. ADNOC and her company will jointly explore increasing capacity of the Shah Gas field to 1.85 billion standard cubic feet per day from 1.45 billion now, ADNOC said.
ADNOC also will participate in a project Occidental is setting up in the U.S. to suck carbon dioxide directly from the air and inject the gas into oil field reservoirs to boost production, Hollub said.
Read more: Oxy and ADNOC’s investment firm to explore carbon capture solutions in Texas
XRG PJSC, ADNOC’s new international investment arm, will participate.
EOG Resources Inc. will also get a concession to explore an unconventional oil block in Abu Dhabi, according to ADNOC’s statement.
The pledges add up to $60 billion of potential U.S. investment into the UAE, Al Jaber said.
Meanwhile, the UAE expects its initiatives to invest in the U.S. energy industry will reach a combined $440 billion by 2035 from $70 billion already spent, he said.
During this week’s visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, Trump announced $2 trillion in investments from the three allies.
