Emirates National Oil Company has revamped the board of its upstream subsidiary, Dragon Oil, as it prepares for expansion.
The Dubai government-owned Enoc said that Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and chairman of Enoc Group, will be Dragon Oil’s new chairman.
The announcement follows last week’s move to install Saif Al Falasi, Enoc group chief executive, as chief executive of Dragon Oil, taking over from long-serving Abdul Al Khalifa, a former Saudi Aramco executive.
Yesterday’s statement said Mr Al Falasi would continue as chief executive of Dragon Oil “at this stage” but a spokesperson could not confirm if it had begun a search yet for a long-term replacement for Mr Al Khalifa.
The changes to the board come as Enoc prepares Dragon Oil for a long-planned phase of growth following its late-2015 buyout of minority shareholders in the company.
Enoc has made it clear that it wants to use Dragon Oil as the prime upstream expansion platform for the company – and for Dubai – as it seeks to complement its refining and marketing assets to create a fully integrated oil concern to enhance the emirate’s energy security.
“Over the last 15 months, Enoc Group has conducted due diligence for the integration of Dragon Oil into its fold and is now set to embark on a new era of growth,” Enoc said when announcing the board changes.
“The new board will provide critical leadership and direction to Dragon Oil as it seeks more upstream opportunities while building on existing contracts.”
Dragon Oil’s main asset is the Cheleken offshore oil and gasfields in Turkmenistan, where it is sole operator under a production-sharing agreement with the government. It has invested more than US$5 billion over the past decade and a half to reach production levels of about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2015.
The company also has interests in exploration assets in Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Afghanistan and Egypt.
Meanwhile, Enoc is expanding capacity at its Jebel Ali refinery by 50 per cent to 210,000 barrels per day. It is also increasing its retail chain by about 50 per cent to take it to near 200 outlets, while expanding into Saudi Arabia.
The other board members named yesterday are: as vice chairman, Saeed Al Tayer, the chief executive of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority; Abdulrahman Al Saleh, the Dubai government’s director-general of finance; Hussain Al Sayegh, the deputy chairman, Oilfields Supply Centre; Abdul Rahman Al Awar, the director general, Federal Authority for Government Human Resources; Ahmad Sharaf, the chief executive of Dutco Energy and chairman of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange; and Ahmad Al Muhairbi, the secretary general of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.
amcauley@thenational.ae
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