In The Spotlight

The agreement was signed by His Excellency Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO, ENOC, and His Excellency Abdulla Bin Damithan, CEO & managing Director, DP World GCC. (Image source: ENOC)
ENOC Group and DP World partner for emergency response
ENOC Group and DP World have signed an agreement to enhance emergency and fire response capabilities across Dubai’s energy and logistics infrastructure, through joint training, planning and coordination
The co-operation involves an annual joint exercise to enhance training, preparedness, and response times, led by ENOC and DP World's emergency teams. It also entails regular updates to emergency response plans and a shared protocol for engaging external parties to ensure swift and coordinated action.
ENOC Group continues to demonstrate its commitment to the highest levels of safety and emergency preparedness. In 2022, the Group launched an Emergency Response Centre in Jebel Ali in partnership with Dubai Civil Defence. More recently, members of ENOC’s Emergency Response Centre completed specialised training at the International Fire Training Centre in the UK, enhancing the Group’s HAZMAT and fire risk assessment capabilities. This advanced training equips firefighters with the skills to respond effectively to hazardous material incidents, perform complex rescue operations, and conduct fire risk assessments within the high-risk oil and gas sector. The group has specialised centres of excellence for delivering emergency response and crisis management and fire training services to corporate, segments and business units.
His Excellency Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO, ENOC, said, “This MoU marks a significant stride forward in solidifying our commitment to the highest safety standards and emergency preparedness. We are proud to collaborate with DP World, a partner who shares our deeply held values of ensuring operational safety and resilience across the board. This collaborative approach will undoubtedly enhance our collective ability to respond effectively to any unforeseen incidents, safeguarding our people, assets, and the community.”
His Excellency Abdulla Bin Damithan, CEO & managing director, DP World GCC said, “Safety is the core value that underpins everything we do at DP World. This agreement reflects our shared commitment to creating a safe environment for our people, assets and operations. Together with ENOC, we’re enhancing our ability to respond to emergencies and building more resilient, safe infrastructure to support regional trade.”
ADNOC awards US$5bn in contracts for major gas project
ADNOC Gas has awarded US$5bn in contracts for the first phase of its Rich Gas Development (RGD) Project, its largest-ever capital investment
The contracts involve expanding key processing units to increase throughput and improve operational efficiency across the onshore Asab, Buhasa and Habshan facilities and the offshore Das Island liquefaction facility. The company intends to take FIDs on two additional phases of the RGD project at Habshan and Ruwais to boost production capacity to meet growing market demands.
The RGD project will enable the development of new gas reservoirs, which are key to boosting liquid gas exports, supporting gas self-sufficiency in the UAE, and providing essential feedstock to the country’s growing petrochemical industry. Phase 1 of the RGD project focuses on optimising and debottlenecking existing gas assets while unlocking new and valuable gas streams.
New contracts
EPCM contracts awarded for Phase 1 consist of a US$2.8bn contract awarded to Wood for the Habshan facility, one of the largest gas processing facilities in the world, US$1.2bn to Petrofac for the Das Island liquefaction facility and US$1.1bn to Kent plc for the Asab and Buhasa facilities.
At the Das Island liquefaction facility, Petrofac will provide EPCM services and oversee procurement and construction contracts to build a new inlet facility, two new gas dehydration and compression trains, each with a capacity of 420 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD), and associated infrastructure. Petrofac will also upgrade existing facilities to increase the site’s capacity for collecting and transporting raw natural gas. These upgrades will significantly increase gas processing capacity to meet rising customer demand.
Located 160 km north-west of mainland UAE, the Das Island facility has been operational since 1977, and is the third longest LNG operation still in production globally. With a liquefaction capacity of six million metric tons per annum (MMtpa), it remains a key component of the nation’s LNG export strategy.
Wood’s EPCM package for the long-term gas processing facilities at the UAE’s Habshan facility includes the delivery of substantial upgrades and debottlenecking solutions to the existing Habshan and Habshan 5 gas processing mega-complexes and pipelines, including brownfield modifications and the installation of new facilities. Habshan is one of the largest gas process complexes in the world.
Ken Gilmartin, CEO at Wood, said: “ADNOC Gas’ RGD programme is pivotal to the UAE’s energy security strategy and broader economy. We’re proud to be at the heart of such a significant initiative.
“Wood gained extensive knowledge of Habshan delivering the front-end engineering design and we will deliver the EPCM phase while the facilities remain fully operational in order to sustain critical gas supply.”
Fatema Al Nuaimi, chief executive officer of ADNOC Gas, said, “The FID and contract awards for the first phase of the Rich Gas Development project mark a significant milestone in ADNOC Gas’ strategy to deliver +40% EBITDA growth between 2023 and 2029. This strategic investment is expected to deliver significant new value for our shareholders and enable continued sustainable growth for the company, our employees, and the UAE.”
Global upstream oil investment set to fall this year: IEA
Global upstream oil investment is set to fall this year for the first time since the Covid slump in 2020, with upstream oil and gas spending gravitating to the Middle East, according to the 2025 edition of the IEA’s annual World Energy Investment report
The forecast 6% drop, the steepest since 2016, is driven mainly by a sharp decline in spending on US tight oil, and reflects lower oil prices and demand expectations. Upstream natural gas spending is set to maintain the levels seen in 2024. Together, upstream oil and gas investment for 2025 is forecast at less than US$570bn, a decline of around 4%. Of this, 40% is dedicated to slowing down production declines at existing fields. Global refinery investment in 2025 is set to fall to its lowest level in the past 10 years.
In contrast, investment in new LNG facilities is on the rise, with new projects in the USA, Qatar, Canada and elsewhere set to come online. Between 2026 and 2028, the global LNG market is set to experience its largest ever capacity growth, with the USA set to nearly double its export capacity.
Global spending on upstream oil and gas is gravitating to the Middle East, the report finds, which is set to invest around US$130bn in oil and gas supply in 2025, around 15% of the global total. The region accounts for around 30% of global oil production and 17% of global natural gas production.
Saudi Arabia’s upstream oil and gas investment is the highest in the Middle East, and is set to reach US$40bn in 2025, nearly 15% higher than in 2015. In Qatar, domestic investment has ramped up sevenfold since 2015 with the accelerated development of the huge North Field, while foreign investment has quadrupled in the same period.
Global capital flows to the energy sector are is set to rise in 2025 to a record US$3.3 trillion, a 2% rise in real terms on 2024, despite headwinds from elevated geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, with clean energy technologies attracting twice as much capital as fossil fuels. Around US$2.2 trillion is forecast to be invested in renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency and electrification, twice as much as the US$1.1 trillion going to oil, natural gas and coal.
This investment in clean technologies reflects not only efforts to reduce emissions but also the growing influence of industrial policy, energy security concerns and the cost competitiveness of electricity-based solutions, according to the report.
“Amid the geopolitical and economic uncertainties that are clouding the outlook for the energy world, we see energy security coming through as a key driver of the growth in global investment this year to a record US$3.3 trillion as countries and companies seek to insulate themselves from a wide range of risks,” said IEA Executive director Fatih Birol. “The fast-evolving economic and trade picture means that some investors are adopting a wait-and-see approach to new energy project approvals, but in most areas we have yet to see significant implications for existing projects.”
Also highlighted in the report is the dominance of China as the single largest investor in energy, with its share of global clean energy spending rising from a quarter to almost a third. “When the IEA published the first ever edition of its World Energy Investment report nearly ten years ago, it showed energy investment in China in 2015 just edging ahead of that of the United States,” Dr Birol added. “Today, China is by far the largest energy investor globally, spending twice as much on energy as the European Union – and almost as much as the EU and United States combined.”
The report also underlines the rise in electricity investments and the doubling of global spending on low-emissions power generation, led by solar PV, with investment in solar expected to reach US$450bn this year, making it the single largest global energy investment item. Battery storage investments are also climbing rapidly. Investment in grids, however, currently standing at US$400bn per year is failing to keep pace with spending on generation and electrification, with obstacles being lengthy permitting procedures and tight supply chains for transformers and cables.
Spending patterns remain very uneven globally – with many developing economies, especially in Africa, struggling to mobilise capital for energy infrastructure, the report finds. Today, Africa accounts for just 2% of global clean energy investment. Total energy investment across the continent has fallen by a third over the past decade due to declining fossil fuel spending and insufficient growth in clean energy. To close the financing gap in African countries and other emerging and developing economies, international public finance needs to be scaled up and used strategically to bring in larger volumes of private capital, according to the report.