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Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals has announced the offering of five concession areas in the oil and gas sector for competitive bidding to local and international petroleum companies

The five concession areas are distributed across a wide geographical area and have significant geological potential, according to the Ministry. They are as follows:
· Blocks 12 and 16: Located in the “Greater Barik Area” in central Oman, covering areas of 5,050 sq km and 4,496 sq. km respectively.
· Block 55: Located in the “Eastern Flank Province”, spanning an area of 7,564 sq. km.
· Blocks 42 and 45: Located in the “Sharqiyah Sands Basin” and surrounding areas, with Block (42) covering 30,682 sq. km and Block (45) covering 5,483 sq. km.

The Ministry explained that the application process goes through several stages, including reviewing the available opportunities, registering and submitting the required documents, obtaining the technical data, and then submitting proposals through the designated platform before the deadline. Companies interested in participating can review the tender details through the tender website via the QR Code. Registration will commence on 12 April 2026 and continue until 30 September 2026, with results to be announced following the completion of the technical and financial evaluation of the submitted bids.

The Ministry affirmed that the bid round is part of its ongoing approach to enhancing the investment environment and improving transparency, thereby contributing to attracting quality investments, strengthening international partnerships, transferring modern technologies, and maximising the added value of the oil and gas sector, while supporting sustainability and enhancing the sector’s contribution to the national economy, in line with the objectives of Oman Vision 2040.

The launch of the bid round follows the signing of a concession agreement in February between Oman's Ministry of Energy and Minerals and a joint venture of OQ Exploration and Production and Malaysian group Petronas for offshore block (18) in the Sea of Oman covering a 21,000 sq km area, which offers significant frontier exploration potential across diverse geological settings, from shallow to ultra-deep water.

ADNOC has successfully deployed Taurob’s heavy-duty inspector robot at its Taweelah Gas Compression Plant, where it will conduct autonomous inspections in hazardous environments without putting people at risk.

The robot acts as a first layer of surveillance to detect potential gas leaks, temperature anomalies and other operational hazards. Equipped with advanced sensing systems, including 3D LiDAR and 360-degree thermal imaging, it is built to operate in extreme conditions while reducing the need for human exposure to dangerous areas.

By integrating robotics into daily operations, ADNOC aims to strengthen early hazard detection and enhance decision-making for its engineering teams. The system supports continuous monitoring and provides real-time data to improve plant safety and reliability.

In parallel, ADNOC announced plans to advance its robotics programme through the development of a heavy-duty “operator” robot capable of not only visual inspection but also physical interaction with industrial equipment. The next-generation system, being developed under the ARGOS Joint Industry Project with partners including Equinor, TotalEnergies, and others, is expected to handle tasks such as valve operation and equipment manipulation in hazardous zones. It is designed for deployment in temperatures ranging from –20°C to 60°C and is targeted for operation by the end of 2026.

Dena Almansoori, ADNOC’s group chief technology and innovation officer, said robotics and artificial intelligence were central to the company’s long-term operational strategy.

She said, “Artificial and physical intelligence are transforming how we operate across our value chain. At Taweelah, autonomous robots are already active in live environments, supporting safer and more efficient operations. This innovation is enhancing safety, reducing emissions and strengthening performance in line with national AI and robotics strategies.”

The initiative forms part of ADNOC’s wider integration of AI, robotics and digital monitoring systems across its operations to reduce risk exposure and improve industrial safety performance.

ADNOC’s tools such as HSE Cockpit.ai, which has reduced safety incidents by 30%, provide real‑time visibility to help prevent incidents before they occur, while robots and drones carry out hazardous inspections, emissions monitoring and incident response across land, sea and air, including use cases such as red‑zone and confined‑space operations. Together, these capabilities embed safety into day‑to‑day execution and continue to expand the value ADNOC is delivering through advanced robotics and AI at scale.

As the Uganda National Oil Company aims to build a crude refinery, it has reached out to a unit of global commodities trader, Vitol, for a US$2bn loan to support the project alongside construction and infrastructure developments

According to Henry Musasizi, Uganda's junior finance minister, this seven-year tenor loan from Vitol Bahrain EC (VBA) comes with an interest rate of 4.92%. The minister worked on advancing the approval process for the credit line and the loan, which involved significant lawmakers, who sanctioned the development with a majority verdict.

Musasizi said that Vitol's support "presents an opportunity to access non-traditional financing to implement. ..projects and support the government in developing national infrastructure."  

Vitol Bahrain EC has a long-standing presence in Uganda's downstream sector, functioning as the sole supplier of refined petroleum products to UNOC, before the state-owned company sells it to retailers across the country.

Alongside the refinery, the loan amount will also be covering road construction, a petroleum products storage terminal and extension of a petroleum pipeline from western Kenya to Uganda's capital Kampala.

Previously, the UNOC also concluded a deal with the UAE-based Alpha MBM Investments, whereby a domestic refinery with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day is in the pipeline. The agreement accords 60% stake on the refinery to the UAE firm while UNOC retains 40%.

Uganda is looking to begin commercial oil generation starting next year from fields in its west.

At the opening of AVEVA World 2026 in Milan on 19 May, AVEVA’s chief executive officer Caspar Herzberg highlighted how industrial intelligence breakthroughs can spark fresh possibilities at a time of a new operational reality

Addressing the packed gathering, the CEO of the leading global industrial software company addressed the challenges posed by increasing geopolitical volatility and unpredicatability, multiple paradigm shifts and a multipolar world of conflicts, economic warfare, trade disputes, tariffs and changing supply chains.

“Energy systems are being rewired not just to have electrification but to have resilience and redundancy as core motifs of this rewiring,” he said, citing the renewed focus on hydrocarbons, nuclear and coal. “So we have multiple build outs of generation assets all over the world.”

This trend will be intensified as generation assets are now strategic targets, making it all the more important to have multiple options.

“At the same time we are seeing the rise of generative, agentic and physical AI upending work, creating promises but also challenges in making those promises work in the industrial world we live in.”

As a result of all these pressures there is a “race to resilience”.

“What all these conflicts, these wars and trade disputes have reinforced is that those countries that diversify or have diversified their supply chains and their energy systems withstand these shocks better,” Herzberg said, adding that policies supporting resilience and multiple options will become a national imperative.

“This is not all doom and gloom, because hand in hand with these industrial policies and this need to diversify come infrastructure and digital capability investments, as not only companies but also states rebuild their value chain for redundancy and resilience. Our customers are powering this next generation of industrial infrastructure.”

Wood, for example is using AVEVA unified engineering, PI system, unified supply chain and CONNECT all together to create digital twins that reduce rework, improve collaboration, and preserve lifecycle continuity.

Going on to discuss innovation, Herzberg drew parallels with the Italian Renaissance, and the idea that humanity has to be at the centre of science and progress. “Today we face a lot of the same pressures, we have some amazing technological capabilities, we have the power of AI, but we must keep humanity, people at the centre of decision making.

“So this moment that I would call powering possibility is defined not only by volatility but by new possibilities, positive possibilities. Imagination is meeting digital capability. There are challenges, with the bottom line and increasing complexity, but there is a large positive opportunity that we can now access at a much faster pace than in the past. To seize that opportunity means creating scale, and creating scale requires integrated software. Intelligence means optimising performance, and that requires intelligent software, and empowering people requires intuitive software.

“That brings us to AVEVA and our quest to deliver software that is integrated, intelligent and intuitive.”

Herzberg charted AVEVA’s progress since the launch of its multi-year technology strategy in 2024. Highlighting some recent developments, he said,

“In the first quarter of this year our generative design assistant brought AI capabilities in unified engineering to our customers for the very first time, where predictive design models surface issues much earlier, and where automated point cloud intelligence reduces manual effort.”

The company also announced a lifecycle digital twin for the data centres of the future with Schneider and NVIDIA, which brought unified engineering process simulation and the PI System together in one capability via the NVIDIA Omniverse viewport.

New collaborations

Key to enhancing AVEVA’s capabilities has been its strong partner ecosystem.

“We’re all about the open partner-powered ecosystem. We believe in bringing everybody together for the benefit of industry and the customers we serve,” Herzberg said.

Herzberg announced several new partnerships to strengthen AVEVA’s innovation roadmap, including an agreement (subject to regulatory approval) to acquire Twinthread, a leading provider of predictive analytics, of digital twins and AI for industrial end markets. This will add an advanced AI layer to AVEVA’s data and analytics foundation on CONNECT, AVEVA’s industrial intelligence platform.

“It’s a super powerful capability that enables engineers to improve quality, throughput, asset life and energy efficiency much more rapidly,” Herzberg said.

AVEVA also announced a strategic collaboration with SnowFlake, the AI Data Cloud company, which establishes a direct, zero-copy integration between CONNECT and Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud. It expands AVEVA’s cloud scale intelligence capabilities and enables data to be accessed and used without duplication, helping organisations to move from fragmented IT and OT systems to a governed, enterprise-wide data foundation.

Another strategic partnership between AVEVA and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will accelerate the delivery of industrial intelligence in the cloud, seeing AVEVA expand its CONNECT platform on AWS as part of its broader move to a multi-cloud architecture. By bring CONNECT and the broader AVEVA portfolio to AWS, the two companies aim to give industrial customers a faster, more scalable path to cloud-native operations, reducing the complexity and cost of managing on-premises infrastructure while enabling new AI-driven capabilities that were previously impractical at scale.

Further embodying the spirit of radical collaboration, AVEVA announced a new partnership with IFS, a global leader in industrial AI, to advance AI-powered Continuous Asset Decision Intelligence. The new solution is designed to turn real-time operational and asset data into smarter maintenance, investment and execution decisions across the integrated asset lifecycle, unifying operational intelligence, enterprise execution and strategic capital planning and creating one connected decision flow where every participant in the value chain has the information and AI-enriched insight they need to act with speed and confidence.

“Our partnership with IFS connects data and insights in powerful new ways, from sensor to boardroom,” Herzberg said.

2026 will be a year of acceleration for AVEVA, as AI increasingly transforms industry.

“First we‘re going to double down on industrial AI, and CONNECT is the backbone that enables that. There will be much more investment in those capabilities,” Herzberg said.

“Second, we are increasingly focused on cloud native analytics, AI and digital twins and applications.” AVEVA leaders expanded on the details in following sessions.

New solutions and features will include a digital twin builder that publishes engineering content all the way to CONNECT; an intelligent industrial knowledge graph that contextualises data to PI; enhanced capabilities for PI and PI Vision; a new intuitive UX for CONNECT; and unified engineering and unified visualisation by HMI SCADA on CONNECT.

The opening session of AVEVA World also saw AVEVA customers share their insights and experiences of harnessing the power of digital innovation to open new possibilities. The USA’s TC Energy is using AVEVA software to optimise power supplies to customers across the US market; Porsche MotorSport is using data-driven insights to drive winning performance; and Italy’s Saipem is blending industrial AI and AVEVA Unified Engineering in the cloud, enabling teams to optimise design efficiency, carbon footprint and speed to market.

AVEVA World 2026 is the largest ever edition of AVEVA’s annual flagship conference, bringing together around 4,000 industry leaders, innovators and engineers including 200 students from local universities.

In the oil and gas industry, where every second counts and every decision impacts profitability and safety, robust security is not just a luxury – it's a necessity

From protecting critical assets to safeguarding human lives, security systems must meet the highest standards of reliability and performance.

Pelco, a leader in video security, is uniquely positioned to address the challenges faced by oil and gas companies in the Middle East, offering a fresh perspective on how to optimise security systems seamlessly. With our upcoming online event, we invite you to explore how Pelco can help tackle worker safety, asset protection and operational efficiency in this complex industry.

Addressing oil and gas challenges head-on

Oil and gas operations in the Middle East span harsh deserts, sprawling refineries and high-risk offshore environments. Physical, environmental and digital threats are converging, and security systems must evolve to meet these overlapping demands. Our upcoming online event will focus on three critical areas where Pelco's expertise can make a difference:

1. Improve worker safety and HSE compliance

Ensuring worker safety is both a moral responsibility and a regulatory imperative. Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) compliance is a top priority for oil and gas operations. Pelco's advanced portfolio is designed to help you meet these standards.

Edge-based analytics and intelligent video security can be valuable tools in supporting site safety. These systems can help detect safety incidents, such as slips or falls, especially in areas where oily surfaces, heat or dust create additional hazards. When incidents occur in remote areas, automated detection can prompt faster intervention, thereby closing the gap between the event and the response.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) compliance is another key safety concern. High temperatures in the Middle East can lead to discomfort, and in some cases, workers may be tempted to remove protective gear, such as hard hats or vests, for temporary relief. In this case, AI-enabled video analytics can help identify instances of non-compliance, enabling safety teams to address the issue before it becomes a liability.

Zone-based behavioural analytics can help detect when someone enters a restricted or hazardous area or remains in a dangerous zone longer than necessary. For example, loitering detection near flare stacks or storage tanks can support situational awareness and proactive incident mitigation.

2. Improve security and asset protection

From refineries in the desert to offshore rigs in corrosive marine environments, your assets operate under pressure, so your security systems must withstand these harsh conditions. In areas where explosive gases or dust particles may be present, even basic equipment can pose risks. That’s why choosing video solutions built for hazardous environments is critical.

ExSite Enhanced cameras, featuring 316L stainless steel construction and certifications such as ATEX and IECEx, are designed for use in hazardous atmospheres. Whether it’s observing pipeline manifolds, wellheads or chemical storage areas, these systems deliver dependable performance in high-risk environments. In corrosive coastal locations, such as LNG terminals or offshore rigs, Pelco’s anti-corrosion models withstand salt spray, humidity and chemical exposure without compromising visibility.

For perimeter defence, long-range Silent Sentinel cameras give security teams early warning of approaching threats, detecting vehicles, vessels or drones from kilometres away in fog, darkness or dust. These systems are especially valuable for remote desert pipelines or unstaffed offshore installations, where rapid detection is critical to prevent disruptions.

3. Minimise downtime and maximise uptime

Every minute of downtime impacts revenue. For oil and gas operations, the cost of unplanned outages is measured in millions of dollars. With Pelco, your video security can become an operational asset.
Radiometric thermal cameras can detect overheating in transformers, compressors and electrical panels, allowing teams to take action before equipment failure occurs. At the same time, Pelco’s camera image health analytics help ensure your video infrastructure is always performing at its best. Our cameras automatically detect issues such as lens obstructions, misalignment or tampering, reducing the need for manual inspections and helping ensure your security coverage is always clear, optimised and ready when it matters most.

Join us to discover the Pelco advantage

We invite you to join our upcoming online event, where industry leaders and Pelco experts will dive deeper into these challenges and solutions. Together, we'll explore how Pelco can be the missing ingredient to supercharge your security and drive operational excellence in the Middle East oil and gas sector.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain actionable insights and position your operations for success. Register now and discover how Pelco can transform your approach to security.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is set to become the world’s largest hydrogen exporter by 2060, while maintaining a dominant position in global oil and gas markets, according to DNV’s Oil & Gas Decarbonization in the Gulf Region report

The report highlights how Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are cutting the emissions intensity of their core oil and gas production while continuing to play a central role in global energy supply, presenting a picture of a region approaching the energy transition from a position of confidence and capital strength. Reductions in emissions intensity are occurring alongside continued hydrocarbon production and investment across renewables, electrification, hydrogen, methane abatement, digitalization, and carbon capture.

Since 2005, the GCC has produced nearly 18% of global oil and gas, a share expected to increase as investment continues in low-cost, advantaged resources. As global energy demand increasingly shifts toward Asia, the region’s location and cost competitiveness strengthen its position as a preferred supplier. At the same time, decarbonization measures are becoming an integral part of long-term competitiveness.

“The global energy transition will not progress at the same pace across regions, nor will it follow a single pathway,” said Brice Le Gallo, vice-president & regional director for Southern Europe, MEA & LATAM, Energy Systems at DNV. “In the Middle East, oil and gas remain central to economic stability and global energy security. The key challenge is to reduce their emissions footprint while accelerating investment in the technologies needed for a lower-carbon energy system.”

Electrification is being used to cut Scope 2 emissions from pumps, compressors, and offshore facilities, through grid connections, renewable power, and hybrid solutions. These efforts are supported by energy-efficiency measures and the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence to optimise drilling, reservoir management, and asset operations, reducing energy intensity and emissions per barrel produced.

Methane reduction remains one of the most immediate and cost-effective options for lowering emissions. Across the GCC, routine flaring is planned to be phased out by 2030 and leak detection and repair (LDAR) programmes are increasingly standard. National oil companies are also aligning with international methane initiatives, enabling continued production growth while reducing methane intensity in line with national net-zero targets.

GCC countries are realigning domestic energy systems to reduce oil and gas use domestically and free up volumes for export and low-carbon fuel production. Growth in renewables, electrification of transport and buildings, and efficiency gains are driving this shift. Investment in downstream industries, petrochemicals, and low-carbon fuels is also changing export profiles, moving beyond crude oil toward higher-value and lower-carbon energy products.

With access to low-cost natural gas, strong solar resources, and established industrial and export infrastructure, the region is well placed to scale both low-carbon hydrogen (produced from natural gas with carbon capture) and renewable hydrogen produced through electrolysis. By 2060, the Middle-East and North Africa region is projected to produce around 19 million tonnes of hydrogen and 13 million tonnes of ammonia per year, exporting about 50%, mainly toward Europe and advanced Asian economies.

“Hydrogen, ammonia, and carbon capture are becoming core elements of the GCC’s energy export model,” said Jan Zschommler, market area manager for the Middle East, Energy Systems at DNV. “As emissions requirements tighten, access to international markets will increasingly depend on carbon intensity. Integrating hydrogen production with renewable power, carbon capture, and existing industrial clusters allows the region to remain competitive while meeting these requirements.”

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is also set to grow. In January 2026, the UAE's Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs has introduced Carbon Capture Policy as a further commitment to meeting their carbon reduction targets. Captured CO₂ volumes (including CO₂ removal) are expected to reach around 250 million tonnes per year by 2060, equivalent to roughly 8% of regional energy-related and industrial emissions.

Bioenergy with carbon capture (BECCS) and direct air capture (DAC) combined are expected to remove around 81 million tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2060, helping to offset emissions from sectors that are more difficult to decarbonise.

The full report is available at https://www.dnv.com/energy-transition-outlook/oil-and-gas-decarbonization-in-the-gulf-region/