Renewable Energy Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy to invest in wind power By Eva Levesque February 5, 2025, 3:06 PM Alamy via Reuters A wind turbine installation vessel in Ostend port, Belgium. NMDC Energy says wind will account for as much as 20 percent of the company's revenues in the next few years Potential in Europe and SE Asia $500m investment in sector New oil and gas markets Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy, an engineering, procurement and construction contractor for energy projects, is hoping to expand its renewable energy business in South East Asia and Europe. Ahmed Al Dhaheri, NMDC Energy’s CEO, told AGBI that wind will account for as much as 20 percent of the company’s revenues in the next few years, with particular potential in Europe where many energy companies have net-zero targets. “Companies like Total, Iberdrola, EDF and others have a mandate to reach certain production levels from renewables, [including] from offshore wind,” Al Dhaheri said. “We are engaging today heavily with a good number of opportunities in Europe.” Abu Dhabi’s renewables company Masdar is a “strategic” partner in this respect, he said. NMDC is investing about $500 million to build a dedicated offshore vessel to serve related wind energy projects, Al Dhaheri said. The investment will also include the acquisition of jack-up barges for installing towers, blades and turbines, as well as vessels for laying interconnecting cables between offshore wind projects. The global offshore wind business has been struggling recently, with some projects shelved and delayed on cost increases of between 40-60 percent, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie. However, Wood Mackenzie expects the global wind business to expand this year, as “a new wave of markets is advancing their route to markets across the Baltic Sea, Southern Europe and Asia” in the offshore sector. “Terms and conditions can be challenging sometimes,” Al Dhaheri said. “However, we did our assessment and feasibility study, and we see that we can fit very well in the installation activities of the foundations later on, in the installation of the blades, turbines and towers.” NMDC Energy, which is traded on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange, operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Taiwan and India, and Al Dhaheri said the company is “monitoring” potential markets in North and West Africa. That includes the Malita offshore project in Libya, as well as Nigeria and Iraq. The company is also interested in the Al-Durra gas field joint development between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, located in the so-called Neutral Zone. In South East Asia, NMDC Energy has an office in Malaysia in a region with “good potential”, Al Dhaheri said, without giving details. Shopping trip for NMDC Energy boss after blockbuster IPO Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Group profit up 45% Something old, something new: GCC energy trends in 2025 So far this year the company has won a subsea gas pipeline and power project-contract from state-owned Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) valued at over $1 billion, taking the total value of NMDC Energy’s pipeline of projects to almost $15 billion. Saudi Arabia – where NMDC Energy recently inaugurated an $54 million yard for offshore and onshore projects – accounts for around 40 percent of its revenue. Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) are its biggest customers. Although global investment in upstream activities is picking up from around $400 billion per year, it’s still not near its recent high of about $700 billion a decade ago, Al Dhaheri said. Saudi Arabia and the UAE expect to spend about $33 billion on developing oil and gas facilities over the coming years. “Energy security is a top priority” for the Gulf states, Al Dhaheri said. NMDC Energy NMDC Energy, which listed on the Abu Dhabi exchange last year, announced an 80 percent increase in its net profit for 2024, from AED780 million to AED1.406 billion on Friday. Its revenues soared to AED14.44 billion, up 82 percent year on year for 2024. A majority-owned subsidiary of NMDC Group, the company reported a net profit of AED502 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 35 percent year-on-year increase. Its fourth-quarter 2024 revenues rose to a record high of AED4.7 billion, up 57 percent from 2023. The company proposed a total cash dividend of AED700 million for the financial year ended December 31, 2024, representing a cash dividend per share of 14 fils. The 50 percent dividend pay-out is subject to shareholders’ approval at the company’s General Assembly Meeting. Its shares traded at AED2.85 on Friday, up 0.35 percent.