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By Anthony Di Paola
Darren Woods Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Abu Dhabi’s Upper Zakum offshore oil field is likely to reach its target for expanding production capacity ahead of schedule, said Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods.
Upper Zakum, which Exxon has developed in partnership with Abu Dhabi’s government-owned producer and Japan’s Inpex Corp., currently has capacity to pump 1 million barrels daily, Woods said. Work is underway to expand that to 1.5 million barrels a day by 2030, and the project is likely to hit that goal early, he said.
“The team is working hard to drive production up,” Woods said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “We’ve got an objective that we set by 2030, but I think we can do better than that.”
Increasing capacity gives the United Arab Emirates additional clout in the oil market, while also being an occasionally touchy subject within OPEC+, which places limits on members’ output. The UAE’s production is currently capped at about 3.4 million barrels a day. Although those restrictions are slowly easing, they still leave some resources that cost billions of dollars to develop lying idle.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. is seeking to increase its oil production capacity to 5 million barrels a day by 2027, from about 4.85 million barrels a day now.
Adnoc and Exxon Mobil announced plans to expand Upper Zakum in May during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the UAE and other countries in the region. The companies didn’t specify the target capacity level at that time.
In Iraq, ExxonMobil is also in discussions with the government about returning to that country to look for more resources around the Majnoon field.
“We’ve got a very good pipeline of investment opportunities that’s going allow us to continue to grow well past the end of this decade,” Woods said.
Middle Eastern producers are bringing new oil wells online and adding natural gas production capacity as they seek to raise state incomes and benefit from growing global energy demand. The industry needs more investment to sustain production and to build out infrastructure for technology and data centers, regional ministers and executives said on Monday at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
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