ADNOC announces second gas discovery from offshore concession in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced on Friday a second discovery of natural gas resources in the first exploration well in Abu Dhabi’s Offshore Block 2 Exploration Concession, operated by Eni.

The discovery from a new deeper reservoir indicates between 1 – 1.5 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF) of raw gas in place, the company said in a statement. The discovery builds on ADNOC’s initial finding in February this year from a shallower target, taking the total amount of gas in place from this single well to 2.5 - 3.5 TSCF.

A consortium led by Eni and PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), was awarded the exploration rights for Offshore Block 2 in 2019 as part of ADNOC’s debut competitive block bid round, the company said.

“This discovery further highlights how ADNOC’s accelerated exploration and development program is identifying untapped hydrocarbon resources, creating long-term value for the UAE,” Yaser Saeed Almazrouei, ADNOC Upstream Executive Director, said in a statement.

“We are particularly pleased to see Eni and PTTEP pursuing deeper zones, which has demonstrated additional potential resources in place. We look forward to continuing to work with all our strategic partners to sustainably identify and further unlock Abu Dhabi’s hydrocarbon resources,” he said.

According to ADNOC, both discoveries leveraged insights from ADNOC’s ongoing 3D mega seismic survey, underpinning the important role the survey is playing as it utilises state-of-the-art technologies to help identify new hydrocarbon resources across Abu Dhabi.

The latest discovery builds on previously announced exploration concession discoveries. In May 2022, ADNOC also announced the discovery of approximately 100 million barrels of oil in place in Abu Dhabi’s Onshore Block 3, operated by Occidental, while in December 2021, up to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE) in Onshore Block 4 Exploration Concession, which is operated by INPEX/JODCO was confirmed.

ADNOC launched Abu Dhabi’s first and second competitive block bid rounds in 2018 and 2019 respectively, offering a set of major onshore and offshore blocks to international companies, on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi.

Based on existing data from detailed petroleum system studies, seismic surveys, exploration and appraisal wells data, estimates suggest the blocks hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas, ADNOC said.