Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) will work together with the Austrian producer OMV to help grow Adnoc’s downstream businesses.
The memorandum of understanding, signed in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and the Austrian chancellor Christian Kern, covers cooperation on new downstream projects, refining operations, refinery-petrochemical integration and optimisation, and technical and maintenance support.
“This agreement provides the opportunity to work with OMV to identify areas for mutual collaboration that will contribute to our plans to maximise the value from our assets and operations. It will provide access to the in-depth knowledge and experience of OMV, in refining operations and petrochemicals, enhancing our own experience and skills, as we focus on delivering the company’s strategic objectives,” said Sultan Al Jaber, the Adnoc chief executive and Minister of State.
Adnoc has set a target to grow domestic petrochemicals production capacity to 11.4 million tonnes per annum by 2025 from 4.5 million tonnes last year.
“Together...we have the opportunity to expand our cooperation across the entire value chain, from upstream to downstream, including petrochemicals. We will have a close exchange of expertise that will enable us to make our outstanding, long-term partnership with Adnoc even stronger,” said Rainer Seele, the chief executive of OMV, which produces petrochemical products as well as oil and gas.
Earlier this month, Mr Al Jaber toured the Shanghai manufacturing plant of Borouge, a joint venture between Adnoc and Borealis, which is part owned by OMV.
The plant produces up to 90,000 tonnes of value-added compounds a year for the Chinese automotive industry.
Mr Steele said in January that OMV planned to increase its investments with Adnoc.
The Austrian company, in which Mubadala Investment Company has a 25 per cent stake, is a partner in the exploration of Abu Dhabi’s offshore oil and gasfields. Earlier this month, OMV reported that its refinery utilisation rate reached a high of 96 per cent thanks to its “petrochemical business and Borealis strongly contributed to this favourable result”.
Upstream production in the first quarter hit a 10-year high at 335,000 barrels of equivalent per day on gains from operations in Libya and Norway.
“OMV had a successful start to 2017 with very good operational and financial performance, “ Mr Seele said in a statement provided with its first quarter results.
“OMV continued on its path of value-added growth,” he said. “Downstream we captured the benefits of a strong market environment along the entire value chain.”
* With Wam
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