Adnoc Drilling expects hybrid rigs to cut emissions

Pexels/Jan-Rune Smenes Reite

• $4bn capex will put 140 rigs in operation
• New rigs will run on hybrid power
• Could reduce CO2 by 20%

Investment in hybrid power solutions could cut Adnoc Drilling’s CO2 emissions by as much as 20 percent.

The largest national driller for oil in the Middle East is seeking to slash its carbon intensity by a quarter by 2030.

The company is set to have more than 140 rigs in operation in the next 18 months as part of a $4 billion capex programme.

The subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is listed on the Abu Dhabi Exchange.

Adnoc Drilling’s chief financial officer Esa Ikaheimonen told AGBI the new rigs would be run on a hybrid model to achieve energy savings.

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“In the short term, the hybrid solution with battery storage capability will reduce our emissions,” Ikaheimonen said.

“In the longer term, there is the possibility to connect them to the grid.”

Ikaheimonen said plans to implement battery storage solutions for all the company’s existing rigs have been piloted and they are currently looking into procurement models “to try and make that a little bit more affordable”.

“Not only new-build rigs will have hybrid power solutions, but increasingly our existing older rigs will have it as well,” he said.

Further plans to meet the carbon emissions targets include a pilot project to introduce solar power to Adnoc Drilling’s mobile camps.

Last month Adnoc announced that it had brought forward its deadline to reach net-zero carbon emissions by five years to 2045, citing its “industry-leading” progress on targets to date as the reason for the change. 

Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, approved the state oil company’s plan to bring the net-zero deadline forward from 2050.

“We’re a really small part of the Adnoc group’s carbon emissions,” Ikaheimonen said.

“We’re never going to make it or break it for Adnoc group, but we need to do our share.”

He revealed that plans to meet the company’s own interim 2030 target have been costed and the sustainability component will be a “meaningful part” of its next five-year business plan.

“We are investing our own money in implementing these plans already, but in terms of the next five years and the bigger schemes, particularly the battery storage solution, we do need funding support from our clients and we’re confident we’ll get that from them,” he said.

In March Adnoc Drilling signed a deal with Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, better known as Masdar, to become a drilling technical expert and advisor to support its deployment of geothermal energy around the world.

Geothermal energy harnesses the heat generated within the Earth’s core to provide a constant energy source, unlike solar or wind, which are intermittent in nature.

“We are a key player in enabling that because we basically drill the holes in order to allow our shareholder to re-inject the carbon back into the ground and store it there,” Ikaheimonen said.