Abu Dhabi boosts reserves with unconventional oil

Abu Dhabi has boosted its estimated conventional oil reserves by 2bn bl to take its total to 107bn bls, the emirate's Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) announced today. This is the second consecutive reserves increase in as many years.

It also added another 22bn bl of recoverable unconventional oil resources following a major onshore appraisal program by state-owned Adnoc covering 25,000 km2 in Abu Dhabi.

The reserve additions were confirmed by Houston-based independent petroleum consultants Ryder Scott, according to the SPC.

At 22 billion barrels, the newly discovered recoverable unconventional resource would be bigger than Abu Dhabi's existing major oil fields, the SPC said, and have production potential comparable to "the largest shale oil operations in North America".

The announcement followed a meeting of the SPC, Abu Dhabi's highest hydrocarbon policy and strategy body, which was chaired by the UAE's de facto ruler, Abu Dhabi's crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

The additions come just one year after the SPC boosted its estimate of Abu Dhabi's oil reserves by 7 bn bl to 105bn bl. This lifted it from seventh to sixth position in global reserves ranking.

And further announcements on reserves could be on the way in the coming years if exploration work at blocks included in Abu Dhabi's second licensing round prove successful. The SPC is preparing to announce the winners of the upstream exploration licensing round, which was held in 2019. Two onshore and three offshore blocks were offered in that round, as well as unconventional oil and gas prospects for the first time.

"Based on the data available from detailed studies of the petroleum system and seismic surveys obtained from exploration and evaluation wells, it is estimated that the new areas within the second round of competitive bidding contain large resources estimated at several billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas," the SPC said.

Adnoc aims to use discoveries made the licensing rounds to help sustain its long-term production capacity target of 5mn b/d by 2030. The emirate can currently produce as much as 4mn b/d.

Along with the reserves hike, the SPC also approved a 448 billion dirham ($122 billion) capital spending plan for Adnoc to help fund energy projects for the coming five years. Further details on the outlay were not provided however.

By Adal Mirza