The Emirati hydrocarbon giant, ADNOC, announced on Thursday the award of construction contracts for a major gas project, a few weeks before the world climate conference (COP28) in the rich Gulf state.
The contracts concern the Hail and Ghasha offshore fields, the UAE public company said in a statement, promising that this project will be the “first in the world” to operate with a “net zero emissions” objective.
Signed on the last day of the energy fair in Abu Dhabi, the contracts have a total estimated value of $16.94 billion.
The construction work of the two offshore sites has been entrusted to a joint venture between the Emirati National Petroleum Construction and the Italian Saipem, while the Italian company Tecnimont will be responsible for the onshore infrastructure.
According to the press release, the project will include “innovative decarbonization technologies” allowing the capture and storage of 1.5 million tonnes of CO.2 per year, and will benefit from low-carbon hydrogen and electricity produced from nuclear and renewable energies.
The Hail-Ghasha project is part of the Ghasha concession, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, which aims to produce more than 42.5 million cubic meters of gas per day by 2030, contributing “to the self-sufficiency of the United Arab Emirates in gas, and the growth and export strategy of ADNOC gas”, the gas subsidiary of the group, according to the same source.
The concession is operated by ADNOC, Eni, OMV, Wintershall Dea and Lukoil.
In a report published in September, experts from the Climate Action Tracker group highlighted the Emirates’ dependence on gas for its electricity production, raising concerns about the COP28 host country’s bet on carbon capture.
The UN climate conference, which opens on November 30 in Dubai, is chaired by ADNOC boss Sultan al-Jaber, whose appointment to this post has sparked criticism, defenders of environment denouncing the role of the hydrocarbon sector in global warming.
At the opening of the show on Monday, Sultan al-Jaber reiterated that the gradual exit from fossil fuels was “inevitable”, while emphasizing the dependence of the global economy on oil, gas and coal.
ADNOC committed in July to achieving carbon neutrality in 2045 for its own operations, but this objective does not take into account indirect emissions produced by hydrocarbons exported and burned by its customers, and which represent the vast majority of its carbon footprint.