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By Anthony Di Paola and Abeer Abu Omar
Adnoc Gas Plc is considering a new liquefied natural gas export facility outside the contested Strait of Hormuz, Abu Dhabi’s latest move to build infrastructure bypassing the critical waterway that’s been severely disrupted by the Iran war.
The company, a unit of the United Arab Emirates’ biggest oil producer, is looking at options on the country’s east coast, Chief Financial Officer Peter van Driel said in a Bloomberg Television interview. It hasn’t made any final decision on the plans.
An LNG plant outside Hormuz would add to the UAE’s plans to build new pipelines and expand ports as the nation attempts to reduce its dependence on the strait to zero. The war in the region has exposed Gulf nations’ reliance on Hormuz, forcing them to come up with alternatives that bypass the waterway in an attempt to keep their energy exports flowing and economies running.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has also been the most active in getting its oil out of the Persian Gulf, sometimes sending its ships dark to avoid detection. The company’s vessels have also come under repeated attacks while transiting Hormuz with three tankers attacked by missiles and drones last week, taking the tally since the start of the Iran war to 15.
Countries across the region are finalizing plans for infrastructure that bypass the crucial waterway. Saudi Arabia, which diverted its crude oil via the East-West pipeline to ports on the Red Sea coast, is considering expanding export capacity. Iraq is working on plans to rehabilitate old links and build new ones to transport its oil to Syria and Turkey.
Sources: US Central Intelligence Agency, US Department of Energy, Bloomberg News reporting
If finalized, the UAE’s LNG plan would be the first attempt by one of the region’s key exporters of the super-chilled fuel to redirect supplies away from Hormuz. Others such as Qatar are largely dependent on the route for its supplies.
Also read: Bypass the Strait of Hormuz? Why That’s Not So Easy: Explainer
Building the facility would cost billions of dollars. A plant on the UAE’s east coast would also likely require the country to have a pipeline connecting the project to gas fields on the western coast.
Adnoc Gas is already constructing an LNG export terminal at Ruwais inside the Persian Gulf, which will more than double its export capacity to about 15 million tons a year.
Separately, the company is going ahead with $8.2 billion in investments to boost gas production, it said in a statement Monday. It will build new gas-processing facilities to handle added volumes of output as it sees booming demand domestically as well as in Asia, CFO van Driel said.
Adnoc Gas expects a 60% increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization by 2030 as it responds to the expected global rise in demand for the fuel. That target — an increase on its previous 40% growth goal — reflects Adnoc Gas’s new investment plans.
It has restored about 85% of operations at the Habshan gas-processing facility, the country’s largest, which was damaged during the war.
— With assistance from Priscila Azevedo Rocha and Dan Murtaugh
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