UAE’s ADNOC announces three onshore oil discoveries

The state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Thursday announced multiple onshore oil discoveries in place, totalling 650 million barrels of oil.

It said that it includes 500 million barrels of oil in place at Abu Dhabi’s largest onshore field – Bu Hasa. Bu Hasa is part of the Adnoc Onshore Concession and is operated by Adnoc Onshore.

Additionally, a 100 million barrels were discovered in Onshore Block 3 operated by Occidental. Back in 2019, ADNOC awarded the US-based Occidental Petroleum the Onshore Block 3. Occidental was handed a 35-year concession and invest $244m during the exploration phase of the block, which spans an area of 5,782 sq km in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi.

Also announced on Thursday was that around 50 million barrels were discovered in the Al Dhafra Petroleum Concession offering the potential to develop more premium Muruban grade oil. The Al Dhafra Petroleum Concession is operated by Al Dhafra Petroleum, a joint venture between Adnoc, the Korea National Oil Company (KNOC) and GS Energy.

We are proud to announce multiple onshore oil discoveries in place, totalling 650 million barrels of oil. pic.twitter.com/yPYII9Pn40

— ADNOC Group (@AdnocGroup) May 19, 2022

Over the past few months, ADNOC has reported significant new oil and gas discoveries. In December last year, it said that it had found “significant” conventional oil, condensate and gas discoveries of up to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (from an exploration well in Onshore Block 4 concession. The concession is operated by Inpex – part of the Japan Oil Development Company.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC announces new oil and gas discoveries

Meanwhile in February this year, ADNOC confirmed that it had discovered natural gas reserves offshore of Abu Dhabi. Interim results at the time from the first exploration well in the emirate’s Offshore Block 2 Exploration Concession indicated the discovery of between 1.5–2 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF) of raw gas. Offshore Block 2 covers an area of 4,033 sq km northwest of Abu Dhabi. The discovery in the block was enabled by information gathered by the world’s largest combined onshore and offshore three-dimensional mega seismic survey which was undertaken in the emirate.

Read also: Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC announces discovery of new natural gas resources offshore