New Natural Gas Find Offshore Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced Thursday the discovery of natural gas offshore Abu Dhabi. 

Interim results from the first exploration well in Abu Dhabi’s Offshore Block 2 Exploration Concession, which is operated by Eni, are said to indicate between 1.5 and two trillion standard cubic feet of raw gas in place. The find marks the first from Abu Dhabi’s offshore exploration concessions, ADNOC highlighted.

“The well interim results indicate a range of 1.5-2 trillion cubic feet of raw gas in place in multiple good quality reservoirs of the Jurassic exploration targets,” Eni said in a company statement.

“The drilling operations will continue to reach the deeper exploration targets of the Khuff and Pre-Khuff Formations. After completing the well drilling in Q2 2022, the size of the well final findings will be assessed,” Eni added in the statement.

Commenting on the discovery, Ahmed Al Jaber, the Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, said, “the discovery of material natural gas resources in Offshore Block 2 underscores how ADNOC’s expanded approach to strategic partnerships is enabling us to accelerate the exploration and development of Abu Dhabi’s untapped hydrocarbon resources and create long-term value for the UAE, in line with the leadership’s wise directives”.

“We congratulate our valued partners, Eni and PTTEP, on this achievement and we look forward to continuing to work with all our strategic partners to sustainably unlock Abu Dhabi’s hydrocarbon resources and stay ahead of the world’s growing demand for lower-carbon energy,” he added.

Yaser Saeed Almazrouei, ADNOC’s upstream executive director, said, “the positive interim results recorded by our partners, Eni and PTTEP, in the exploration of Offshore Block 2 follows the recent significant discovery in Onshore Block 4, highlighting the continued success of ADNOC’s accelerated exploration and development program”.

“Both discoveries leveraged insights from ADNOC’s ongoing 3D mega seismic survey, underpinning the important role the survey is playing for us and our strategic partners as it utilizes state of the art technologies to help identify new hydrocarbon resources across Abu Dhabi,” he added. 

ADNOC launched Abu Dhabi’s first and second competitive block bid rounds in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The company noted that it offered a set of “major” 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 wells data, estimates suggest the blocks hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas, ADNOC highlighted.

Eni has a 70 percent stake in Offshore Block 2, which was awarded to the company in January 2019. PTTEP holds the remaining 30 percent interest. The block is said to cover an area of 1,557 square miles northwest of Abu Dhabi.

Last month, INPEX Corporation revealed that it had discovered multiple conventional oil, condensate and gas columns through an exploration well in Abu Dhabi’s Onshore Block 4, via its subsidiary JODCO Exploration Limited (JEL). The provisional oil, condensate and gas in place combined discoveries was said to total up to one billion barrels of oil equivalent.

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