International oil and gas majors Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies, as well as Japan's Mitsui & Co, have agreed to buy 10% each in the new LNG project in the United Arab Emirates, anonymous sources familiar with the plans told Bloomberg on Friday.
The international firms will invest in the Ruwais LNG project of Abu Dhabi's national oil company ADNOC as Big Oil continues to bet on the growing demand for gas and LNG in the coming years.
BP, TotalEnergies, and Mitsui are currently partners in the only existing LNG export plant in the UAE located on Das Island.
Last month, ADNOC took the final investment decision to move forward with the Ruwais LNG project, which will more than double the existing LNG production capacity in the United Arab Emirates.
Ruwais LNG will consist of two 4.8 million metric tons per annum (mmtpa) LNG liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 9.6 mmtpa. This would more than double ADNOC's existing LNG production capacity to around 15 mmtpa, as the company builds its international LNG portfolio.
The project, located in Al Ruwais Industrial City in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi, will be the first LNG export facility in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to run on clean power, making it one of the world's lowest-carbon intensity LNG plants, ADNOC says.
The UAE state energy giant has also awarded an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract for the project valued at approximately $5.5 billion (20.2 billion UAE dirhams).
ADNOC has been betting big on LNG in recent months, seeking to expand its domestic production and export capacity and buying minority stakes in LNG projects overseas, including in the United States.
In May, ADNOC bought an 11.7% stake in Phase 1 of NextDecade's Rio Grande LNG export project in Texas, announcing its first strategic investment in the U.S. ADNOC has also signed a 20-year LNG offtake agreement from Rio Grande LNG Train 4 with NextDecade.
The Abu Dhabi group also announced in May the acquisition of a 10% interest in an LNG project offshore Mozambique as it continues to expand its international natural gas operations.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More