Adnoc Drilling secured a $980 million contract from Adnoc to hire two jack-up offshore rigs, associated manpower and equipment, which will help support the parent company's offshore operations and its goal of boosting crude oil production capacity to five million barrels per day by 2030 amid growing global demand for oil and gas with a lower carbon intensity.
More than 80 per cent of the award value will flow back into the UAE economy under Adnoc’s In-Country Value programme, the company said on Thursday.
The latest contract award brings the total value of awards from Adnoc Offshore to Adnoc Drilling to $5.95 billion in 2022.
“Contracts like this help ensure we continuously deliver strong and sustained growth, while further driving shareholder value, and our ambitious rig fleet expansion program, to which we have made a significant capex commitment, is making the delivery of such contracts possible," said Adnoc Drilling chief executive Abdulrahman Abdullah Al Seiari.
“Our status as a key enabler of Adnoc’s production capacity expansion targets, offers investors a solid opportunity for sustained and predictable revenue growth, coupled with market leading cash flows and profitability margins, enabling our progressive dividend policy.”
Adnoc Drilling, which has provided services to Adnoc Offshore since 2019, is the largest national drilling company in the Middle East by rig fleet size, owning 105 rigs as of July 31 and expecting two new rigs to commence operations by the end of 2022.
Yaser Almazrouei, Adnoc's upstream executive director said the most recent award for the hire of jack-up rigs supports the company's "ongoing efforts to responsibly unlock our lower carbon intensity oil and gas resources, alongside our strategic international partners, and contribute to global energy security”.
Earlier this week, Adnoc Drilling awarded a contract worth $1.53bn for the provision of jack-up and island rigs and associated integrated drilling services. This followed two awards in August worth $3.43bn for the hire of eight jack-up rigs.
Last month, Adnoc and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, better known as Taqa, closed their $3.8bn strategic project to power and decarbonise Adnoc's offshore production operations.
Adnoc Drilling has provided integrated drilling services to Adnoc Offshore since 2019.
Adnoc is the company's majority shareholder, with an 84 per cent stake, while US energy services company Baker Hughes, which entered into a partnership with Adnoc Drilling in October 2018, has 5 per cent while US contract oil and gas driller Helmerich & Payne holds 1 per cent.
How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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