Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has announced three onshore oil discoveries in Abu Dhabi that includes a significant oil find at Bu Hasa, its largest producing onshore oilfield.
The emirati state-owned giant said on Thursday that it has made oil finds at Bu Hasa, Onshore Block 3 and the Al Dhafra Petroleum Concession, with the trio expected to together unlock up to 650 million barrels of oil reserves.
The fresh discoveries were unveiled by the operator during a meeting of Adnoc’s executive committee, which was chaired by Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The most promising oil find was reported at the Bu Hasa onshore oilfield, a part of the Adnoc onshore concession and the emirate’s biggest onshore field with a crude production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.
“The 500 million barrels of oil discovered from an exploration well in the Bu Hasa field has unlocked a new formation within the field, offering substantial additional premium-grade Murban oil resources,” the company said.
At Onshore Block 3, operated by Occidental of the US, around 100 million barrels of oil in place was discovered, marking the second oil find in this concession, Adnoc noted.
Occidental was awarded the exploration rights for Onshore Block 3 in 2019.
Adnoc added that around 50 million barrels of “light and sweet Murban-quality crude” was also discovered in the Al Dhafra Petroleum Concession, operated by Al Dhafra Petroleum — a joint venture between Adnoc, Korea National Oil Company and GS Energy.
Earlier this year, Adnoc had announced a sizeable gas discovery in the Offshore Block 2 exploration concession operated by Italy’s Eni.
Adnoc had said that the interim results from the block’s first exploration well indicated between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion cubic feet of raw gas in place in multiple good quality reservoirs of the Jurassic exploration targets.
Onshore Block 4 discovery
The “significant conventional oil, condensate and gas” find in Onshore Block 4, operated by Japan’s Inpex, was announced in December and holds an estimated potential resource of up to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Adnoc has carried out two conventional oil and gas bid rounds in Abu Dhabi in recent years, awarding multiple tracts to leading international oil and gas companies.
Abu Dhabi’s acreage has attracted a growing number of oil majors, including Indian and Chinese players, as it expands its international alliances with the aim of gaining competitive terms and securing long-term markets for its oil exports.
Expansion plans
Adnoc produces almost all of the United Arab Emirates’ oil and is spending billions of dollars on multiple development projects as it aims to expand its crude output capacity to 5 million bpd by 2030, up from the current 4 million bpd.
The Abu Dhabi player last year announced a significant increase in its oil and gas reserves and outlined plans to invest $127 billion through 2026 as it embarks on multiple expansion projects.
The company had said its domestic reserves have increased by an additional 4 billion barrels of oil and 16 Tcf of natural gas.
