ADNOC Accelerates $55 Billion Investment after UAE’s OPEC Exit
The Abu Dhabi national oil company, ADNOC, is accelerating investment in growth and production after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) left OPEC on May 1.
The state oil and gas firm of what was OPEC’s fourth-largest producer before abruptly quitting last week, plans to award as much as $55 billion (200 billion UAE dirhams) on upstream and downstream projects over the next two years.
The announcement of accelerated growth and delivery of the strategy came days after the UAE said it would quit OPEC effective May 1 to pursue its national interests.
For years, the UAE has been working to boost its crude oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027. Due to its expansion plans, the UAE frequently clashed with its fellow OPEC and OPEC+ producers over output quotas. The UAE insisted that it should be allowed to actually use more of its growing spare production capacity. The country, alongside Saudi Arabia, is one of the few in the region – and the world – that held spare production capacity before the Middle East conflict began.
Now the UAE is signaling it needs to look after its own economic interests and is accelerating investment in new projects, unhindered by any OPEC or OPEC+ restrictions after leaving the cartel and the wider alliance.
The $55-billion investment is part of the huge $150-billion capital plan for 2026–2030 approved in November 2025.
So, it’s not new, but it is accelerated by the company now that the UAE is not bound by any production quotas.
ADNOC Group announced the $55-billion investment on Sunday during the inaugural Make it With ADNOC Forum, which “provided greater visibility into ADNOC’s project pipeline, and unlocked a wealth of manufacturing opportunities.”
The group is entering a new phase of world-scale project execution, and its $55-billion in new project awards between 2026 and 2028 will reinforce the delivery of the capex plan, ADNOC said.
The company will prioritize UAE products and manufacturers, said Sultan Al Jaber, ADNOC Group’s chief executive and UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology.
“Local manufacturing is a key pillar for ADNOC in our procurement, construction, and execution strategies for our projects, in line with our commitment to supporting the growth of the industrial base in the United Arab Emirates,” Al Jaber added.
“In line with the directives of the UAE Leadership to advance the UAE’s energy and industrial sectors, ADNOC is entering a defining execution phase in its strategy, driven by scale, pace and a laser-focus on delivery,” the executive said in a statement.
“This marks a new chapter of growth and resilience to meet rising global energy demand while strengthening and expanding the UAE’s industrial and manufacturing base.”
ADNOC’s announcement comes days after the UAE officially left OPEC on May 1 and is no longer bound by any production restrictions.
But with the Strait of Hormuz still closed and oil and gas flows unable to leave the Middle East, the UAE – like the OPEC+ Gulf producers – cannot accelerate production in the short term. All Gulf producers have had to curtail upstream and downstream output in recent weeks, due to the blocked Strait of Hormuz and attacks on infrastructure, including on gas processing units, refineries, and LNG liquefaction sites.
Short term, no producer in the Gulf is in a position to raise output until the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. But in the medium to long term, the UAE is positioning itself to use its growing production capacity and benefit from not being constrained by output quotas.
“The UAE is in a unique economic position to walk away from OPEC. It has a much larger share of unused productive capacity compared with other members, which, without the current restrictions, it can put to use,” analysts at Wood Mackenzie said last week.
“Furthermore, the UAE has much lower fiscal oil price breakevens relative to its peers, leaving its economy relatively resilient and better able to sustain a potential period of low prices.”
