Following a year of supply disruptions and heightened geopolitical uncertainty, the $67 billion (Dh246 billion) in agreements signed at Adipec 2026 underscore the energy sector’s proactive approach to tackling questions of security and resilience in the face of growing demand.
Taken together, the agreements spanned gas supply, infrastructure, logistics, industrial capacity and digitalisation, reflecting an industry focused on strengthening resilience across the entire energy value chain.
The world’s biggest energy show closed out the week with more than 50,000 deals over four days, a 26.4 per cent increase on 2025. In total, Adipec 2026 brought more than 240,000 attendees and 2,260 exhibiting companies representing 170 countries to Abu Dhabi to showcase solutions, discuss opportunities and forge partnerships.
Collectively, the agreements announced in Abu Dhabi pointed to a new phase for the energy industry, one defined by investment in resilience, infrastructure, intelligence and cross-border partnerships rather than supply growth alone.
Record energy sector participation
More than 40 government ministers and policymakers attended, including representatives from Germany, Canada, Egypt, Austria, Japan, Kazakhstan and Nigeria, underscoring the show’s role as a global platform for energy dialogue and investment. They were among the 1,800 speakers spanning governance, energy, technology, finance and more.
“The breadth of international participation, from energy, advanced technology and investment sectors, the record exhibition scale and billions of dollars in agreements advanced this week are particularly significant against the backdrop of this year’s extraordinary challenges,” said Abdulmunim Saif Al Kindy, chairman of Adipec 2026.
“They demonstrate what Adipec is here to do: connect energy, technology and capital to turn ambition into action. They also reinforce Abu Dhabi’s position as a trusted global centre for the energy industry and the UAE’s commitment to working with partners around the world to strengthen energy security and unlock long-term economic growth,” he added.
Over more than 40 years, Adipec has become the annual gathering of the energy industry. Deals are made here, capital is mobilised, new technologies are introduced, and projects are accelerated.
As Karim Badawi, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, said, "The world needs more energy, and to be able to unlock and deliver this energy, it can only be done through collaboration and partnership.” He was speaking alongside ministers from Romania, Azerbaijan and Venezuela at a session titled Beyond borders: can national energy strategies deliver a connected global system?
Tackling complex challenges for future security
The energy sector must overcome a complex array of challenges. On the one hand, demand is rising as populations grow and new pressures come from artificial intelligence and industrial development. On the other hand, energy-transition imperatives require that production expands to renewables and alternative fuels while leveraging traditional energy sources to avoid supply deficits.
Most industry leaders (93 per cent) expect demand growth to require several energy sources, according to the Adipec Global Energy Report 2026, which surveyed more than 1,800 executives in ten markets. Investment needs span the entire value chain, from oil and gas to renewables and nuclear power at the upstream end, to logistics solutions that get energy to consumers in the form of terminals, grids, pipelines and storage.
The International Energy Agency estimates that 3,000GW - the equivalent of a year’s worth of energy for more than 2 billion homes - of advanced-stage renewable and storage projects are waiting for grid connections. Digital infrastructure, such as AI and data centres, is adding to demand as technologies move from experimentation to wide-scale deployment.
The range of partnerships announced at Adipec this year demonstrates how complex the energy business has become. But they also reveal how the sector is responding and the broad directions ahead.
Preparedness is now the biggest priority, as UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Adnoc Group chief executive Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said in an address on the event’s first day.
He said ensuring energy security was now the top question for “every family, every farmer, every industry and every business owner”, and reiterated that the solution would come from teamwork among the sector’s leaders, many of whom were present at the event.
“The choices we make today will determine the energy landscape a decade from now,” he said. "Let’s apply the lessons we have learnt. Let’s build capacity and everything that supports it. Let’s forge partnerships that hold when it matters. And if you want a partner you can count on, you are in the right room, in the right city, in the right country. Because when it counts the most, you can count on the UAE.”
Turning ambition into action
Agreements announced in Abu Dhabi show how the industry is translating resilience from ambition into action.
Among the major deals last week, the investment company XRG agreed to acquire Anglo-Dutch energy group Shell’s stake in Australia’s North West Shelf LNG project for $1.5 billion as it seeks to expand its international gas portfolio while strengthening energy links with Asia-Pacific markets.
Separately, the Abu Dhabi-based industrial zone Ta’ziz reached financial close on $1.39 billion (Dh5.1 billion) for two projects in Ruwais: a logistics gateway terminal and an ammonia facility capable of producing one million tonnes of the alternative fuel a year.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) took a final investment decision on the Ruwais Diyab unconventional gas project, aimed at producing and supplying the UAE with 345 million standard cubic feet of raw gas a day from 2029.
Project announcements at the show also reflected cooperation across national borders and industrial sectors. Indonesia’s Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas (SKK Migas) also announced several agreements, including partnerships with PT Pertamina, Halliburton Worldwide, and Tara Industries. They covered drilling services, offshore vessel support and establishing a new surveying and mapping company in Abu Dhabi to serve the subsea energy cable sector.
US-based Baker Hughes signed four agreements with Adnoc, covering production efficiency, well productivity, gas turbine upgrades and UAE national development. Adnoc also announced LNG supply agreements with India’s Gujarat Energy, for four million tonnes of LNG from 2028, and with TotalEnergies for up to 1.6 million tonnes of LNG.
Among the more future-focused deals is an agreement between the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy (DoE) and Evolve Fuels to study the feasibility of synthesising sustainable aviation fuel in the emirate using renewable sources. The DoE also partnered with H2G Green, GasHubUnited, MUZN Energy and CloudEnergi to assess LNG supply options outside existing networks.
Intelligence at scale
Intelligence is becoming a strategic input alongside capital and infrastructure.
AI in particular is an enabler in closing energy demand gaps, a trend evident from Adnoc's agreement with US technology company OpenAI and the Emirati technology group G42 to expand AI-supported decisions across its operations. Central to the project is OpenAI’s Frontier technology, an enterprise platform for building, deploying and managing autonomous AI software known as agents.
At Adipec, Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, said AI can help tackle some of the world’s most complex energy challenges. He said AI was increasingly being used not just as a productivity tool, but as a platform for scientific discovery and problem-solving, with the potential to transform energy operations, materials development and system design.
“I am tremendously excited for AI to help and enable the energy industry, and I’m even more excited to see what the world can do with the inspiration, ideas, output, and leverage that people can get out of AI, with abundant energy to make all these wonderful things happen,” Mr Altman said.
AI’s role in reshaping the energy system was discussed across the event but took a central role at a set of leadership roundtables that brought together senior leaders from energy, technology, finance and policy to explore practical applications, investment priorities and governance frameworks.
On the Adipec show floor, the AI Zone, co-hosted by AIQ, presented AI in action with real-world applications in reservoir modelling, upstream operations, inspection and robotics. Stone Ridge Technology presented an AI-native workflow layer for its Echelon reservoir simulation software, while EY and Gecko Robotics demonstrated robotic inspection systems for industrial assets, and Aveva presented its Connect platform that supports the full energy asset lifecycle, from design and construction to operation, maintenance and optimisation.
From discussion to execution
Technology is accelerating how projects are being executed, but trust remains essential to delivery, executives at Adipec's 13 conferences heard.
Within the Strategic Conference, the AI, Digital and Technology Innovation programme looked at what it takes to build an AI-ready energy system.
“The greatest value from an AI perspective is where industries, and also the essential services we depend on, can be improved. It is really about how we can make essential operations more productive and reliable, and how we can make them more resource-efficient,” said Helmut von Struve, chief executive of Siemens UAE and Middle East, at a session titled Beyond digital: how AI is reshaping industries, economies and society.
Meanwhile, executives highlighted how trust and disciplined execution are crucial to effective partnerships. During the session Restructuring upstream partnerships: aligning capability, control and capital for project delivery, Abdulla Ateya Al Messabi, chief executive of Adnoc Drilling, and Adnan Bu Fateem, acting chief executive and chief operating officer of Mubadala Energy, discussed how operators are adapting partnership structures to meet changing customer requirements, manage investment risks and support long-term energy security.
Al Messabi argued that the strength of a relationship and a shared understanding of how to create value for customers can matter as much as the formal legal agreement. For his part, Bu Fateem stressed that technology alone would not determine business performance. “It’s the people who make successful companies,” he said, emphasising continuous learning and investment in employees.
Common message for energy security
The significance of Adipec 2026 was not simply the volume of agreements signed. It was the extent to which governments, producers, financiers and technology companies aligned around a common objective: building enough capacity to meet rising demand while strengthening resilience. In an era where energy security has become inseparable from economic security, the partnerships formed in Abu Dhabi offer an early indication of how the next phase of global energy development may unfold.
“At a time of growing global demand and increasing pressure on energy systems, the industry continues to come together to develop the partnerships, technologies and solutions needed to strengthen energy security and support long-term economic growth,” said Christopher Hudson, president of DMG Events, organisers of Adipec. “The scale of engagement, the quality of discussions and the agreements reached throughout the week show a sector focused not only on addressing today’s challenges, but on building a more resilient and connected energy system for the future.”
Adipec returns to Abu Dhabi from November 1-4, 2027.
This page was produced by The National in partnership with Adipec
