Adnoc starts work on ‘green’ LNG plant at Ruwais

Reuters/Albert Gea

• Early site works have begun
• Set to double Adnoc capacity
• Rising demand from Asia

Early engineering, procurement and construction work has started on Adnoc’s low-carbon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at Al Ruwais Industrial City in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi’s state oil company has awarded the contract to a joint venture between France’s Technip Energies, Japan’s JGC Corporation and Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company.

The final investment decision is expected to be issued this year, Adnoc said in a statement. Early works have already started at the site.

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Once completed, the project is set to be one of the world’s lowest-carbon intensity LNG plants.  

Ruwais LNG will consist of two 4.8 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) LNG liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 9.6 million mtpa. It is set to more than double Adnoc’s LNG production capacity from 6 million mtpa to around 15 million.

Earlier this month Siamak Adibi, Singapore-based principal consultant at Fact Global Energy, told AGBI that Adnoc was close to finalising the contracts.

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“I think they will start construction by June 2024, with the first cargo to load at the end of 2028 or early 2029,” he said.

Wood Mackenzie, a data and analytics business based in Edinburgh, has forecast that the Middle East will spend up to $120 billion by 2030 to boost its natural gas production.

Welligence Energy Analytics is forecasting brisk growth in global LNG demand. It expects demand to surpass 550 million mtpa by 2030, from around 400 million in 2023, driven by China and emerging south and southeast Asian importers.

Adnoc signed a 15-year supply agreement with China’s ENN last December to deliver 1 million mpta of LNG from the Ruwais project.

“Several South and Southeast Asian countries are experiencing power shortages, and last year, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong all sourced LNG cargos for the first time,” said Marc Howson, head of Asia Pacific and global LNG at Welligence.