Abu Dhabi energy company Adnoc has signed a 15-year agreement with Japan's Inpex to supply one million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Ruwais LNG project.
The sales and purchase agreement was announced during a visit to Japan by Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc. The announcement comes a day after Adnoc and its international investment arm XRG launched a global LNG marketing and trading platform.
It builds on Adnoc’s "decades-long energy partnership with Japan, advances the commercialisation of Ruwais LNG and reinforces strong market confidence in the project", said Nasser Al Muhairi, acting chief executive of Adnoc Downstream Industry, Marketing and Trading, and chairman of Ruwais LNG.
"As Adnoc and XRG target 47 mtpa of combined marketable LNG by 2035, Ruwais LNG will be a key source of reliable, flexible and lower-carbon supply for customers in Asia and around the world," he added.
Japan, the world's second-largest LNG buyer, imported 67.37 million tonnes last year, according to the International Gas Union.
In February last year, Adnoc signed a sales and purchase agreement with Osaka Gas for the supply of up to 800,000 tonnes per annum of LNG from its Ruwais LNG project. Under the agreement, LNG cargoes will be shipped to the destination ports of Osaka Gas and its Singapore-based subsidiary, Osaka Gas Energy Supply and Trading.
Inpex, Japan’s largest exploration and production company, is also boosting its LNG portfolio. The company is also Adnoc's upstream partner, holding participating interests across a number of Abu Dhabi’s offshore and onshore concessions.
Ruwais LNG
The Ruwais LNG project, under development in Al Ruwais Industrial City, is scheduled to start commercial operations in 2028.
To date, 90 per cent of the project's 9.6 mtpa production capacity has been committed to international buyers across Asia and Europe through long-term arrangements, Adnoc said. Some of them include Shell and Mitsui.
The project, comprising two 4.8 mtpa liquefaction trains, will be the first LNG export facility in the Middle East and Africa to operate on clean power, the company added.
Adnoc Gas expects to acquire Adnoc's 60 per cent stake in the Ruwais LNG project at cost, estimated at around $5 billion, in 2028, the companies said in November 2024. When completed, the project will more than double Adnoc Gas's existing operated LNG production capacity to about 15 mtpa.
International energy companies BP, Japan’s Mitsui, Shell and TotalEnergies also each have a 10 per cent equity stake in the project.
Adnoc is looking to position itself as a major player in the LNG market, as demand for the fuel is projected to grow over the next few decades.
Global demand for LNG is expected to increase to nearly 700 million tonnes a year by 2050, an increase of about 65 per cent from 2025 levels, according to Shell’s LNG Outlook 2026, released last month.
About 180 million tonnes of new annual supply is forecast to enter the market by 2030, improving the availability and affordability of gas and opening up demand in new markets, the report said. "To meet the growing demand, significant additional investment will be needed in new LNG liquefaction plants through the 2030s and 2040s, with around 200 million tonnes a year of new supply needed, in addition to projects already under construction," it added.
