Read the Digital Magazine

Masar Petroleum SAOC, a leading Omani oil and gas exploration and production company, has announced a major discovery in the Hasirah Ridge in Block 7, Sultanate of Oman

The Block 7 concession area spans approximately 2,300sq km in Al Wusta Governorate, central Oman and is operated by Masar Petroleum, which holds a 100% stake. The company started producing from the Hasirah reservoir in 2017.

Masar Petroleum has now successfully drilled a new exploration well south of its existing discoveries, validating the concept of the Hasirah Ridge, a geological trend 5km wide and 30 km long mapped across Block 7 using 2D seismic data. This discovery represents the critical first step toward unlocking the Ridge’s prospective resource base of 100 to 380 million barrels.

A 3D seismic survey and exploration and appraisal program is now going to be conducted, to advance the development of the new resources by the end of 2028.

First production from this field is expected to be on stream during the last quarter of the year. Masar Petroleum plans to rapidly advance appraisal and development opportunities across Block 7, with a view to accelerated growth.

“Masar is a proud Omani E&P company that has delivered significant value through a continuous and focused effort on unlocking our potential,” said Abdulsattar AlMurshidi, chief executive officer of Masar Petroleum.

As offshore energy infrastructure expands into increasingly demanding environments, safeguarding the integrity of underwater assets has become a paramount priority for the sector

Rising to this challenge, the underwater technology specialist Sonardyne has formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AMOG, an international advanced engineering company. Together, they are set to provide a complete subsea asset monitoring service tailored directly to the needs of offshore energy infrastructure operators.

This strategic alliance seamlessly integrates Sonardyne’s trusted underwater positioning, communication, and monitoring technologies with the industry-leading engineering assessment expertise of AMOG. By harnessing their combined capabilities, the partnership aims to unlock vital insights into asset health, substantially reduce costly operational downtime, and enable the safe life extension of critical underwater architecture. Crucially, this comprehensive monitoring approach will support a wide spectrum of subsea installations, encompassing floating offshore wind platforms and traditional oil and gas moorings, alongside essential pipelines and risers.

Dr Hayden Marcollo, a globally recognised specialist in moorings and vortex-induced vibration engineering and analysis, serves as a director at AMOG. Highlighting the transformative potential of the collaboration, he says: “Combining high‑quality subsea data, processed at source on Observer, with advanced engineering assessments, will provide asset owners with more actionable, near-real-time insight into the condition and behaviour of critical subsea infrastructure through a single solution.”

The implications for infrastructure management are profound. Providing a unified approach to complex engineering challenges allows for a proactive rather than reactive operational strategy. As Dr Marcollo further elaborates regarding the commercial benefits: “For operators, this could support earlier detection of anomalies, improved understanding of loads and motions, and more informed decisions around inspection, maintenance and integrity management, as well as asset longevity, in one end-to-end solution.”

The practical application of this partnership is already well underway. Demonstrating the system's immediate relevance to the rapidly expanding renewable energy market, Sonardyne and AMOG are actively collaborating on a near-real-time mooring monitoring system tailored for a European floating offshore wind project.

Frank Rose, business development manager at Sonardyne, outlined the broader vision for the joint initiative. He notes: “By integrating on-demand and long‑term monitoring data from subsea environments with engineering models and analytics, there’s an opportunity to provide a more complete picture of asset performance—whether supporting day‑to‑day operations, integrity assurance or life‑extension strategies.”

This MoU represents a forward-thinking approach to subsea infrastructure management that promises to enhance operational excellence. “By working alongside AMOG, we’re exploring how data and engineering assessments can come together to give operators greater confidence in the way their subsea assets are performing, today and over the long term," Rose adds

TA’ZIZ, a joint venture between ADNOC and ADQ, has signed long-term agreements spanning offtake, feedstock and sales across its chemicals portfolio, valued at US$28.5bn (AED104.6bn)

Signed at the Make it in the Emirates Forum, the agreements, valued at US$28.5bn, secure both global offtake and reliable local feedstocks, allowing for large-scale chemical production within the UAE and reinforcing TA’ZIZ’s role in building a fully integrated domestic chemicals ecosystem. The deals include sale agreements with ADNOC and Proman for methanol; Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) for caustic soda; Mitsubishi Corporation for ethylene dichloride (EDC), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and caustic soda; Mitsui & Co. for EDC and caustic soda; Sanmar Group for EDC and VCM; Tricon for PVC, EDC and caustic soda; and Vinmar for EDC and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

ADNOC Gas secured a 25-year feedstock agreement to supply natural gas to the TA'ZIZ methanol project valued at over $5 billion (AED18.4 billion). TA’ZIZ also agreed a 20 year salt supply agreement with Abu Dhabi based Sama Salt to support production at its PVC complex.

Mashal Saoud Al-Kindi, CEO of TA’ZIZ, said, “These long term agreements represent a defining milestone for TA’ZIZ and for the UAE’s industrial growth ambitions. By securing both global demand and reliable local feedstock, we are translating vision into delivery, anchoring world scale chemicals production, strengthening domestic value chains and creating enduring economic value, jobs and supply chain resilience for the UAE.”

Together, these agreements leverage local resources to secure a reliable and sustainable supply of critical raw materials, further strengthening domestic value chains and advancing the UAE’s industrial self sufficiency.

TA’ZIZ is a manufacturing, industrial services, logistics and utilities ecosystem that enables the production of transition fuels and new products across the chemicals value chain, supporting ADNOC’s ambition to become a top three global chemicals player as well as the UAE’s industrial development and economic diversification ambitions.

The TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone is set to produce 4.7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of chemicals once construction is completed in 2028. This includes a 1 mtpa ammonia plant, a 1.8 mtpa methanol plant and 1.9 mtpa of marketable products from its integrated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) complex. The PVC complex, which produces PVC, ethylene dichloride (EDC), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), and caustic soda, will be one of the world’s top three largest single site PVC complexes.

Also at the Make it at the Emirates Forum, TA’ZIZ and Alpha Dhabi Holding announced a strategic collaboration agreement for around US$10 bn (AED36.7bn) in capital investment in new industrial chemicals in the TA’ZIZ industrial chemicals ecosystem in Al Ruwais Industrial City, Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi.

The partnership could produce up to 14 new chemicals, delivering around 2.2mn tonnes per annum (mtpa) of additional chemical capacity in the TA’ZIZ industrial chemicals ecosystem in Al Ruwais Industrial City. The new chemicals, which include styrene and polystyrenes, acrylic acid and derivates, polyols, MDI, epoxy resins and linear alpha-olefins, are based on domestic demand and could substitute key products currently imported into the UAE, while strengthening local supply chain resilience. The partnership supports the UAE’s national industrial priorities, including the Make it in the Emirates (MIITE) initiative and the country’s industrial strategy, by strengthening domestic manufacturing capability and advancing self-sufficiency in strategically important chemical products.

SLB has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Tachyus Corp., a Houston-based technology company specialising in high-speed reservoir modelling and optimisation

This acquisition of the artificial intelligence-driven, physics-based modeling software company aims to meaningfully enhance SLB's reservoir management, production, and recovery capabilities across the energy sector. The transaction is expected to close shortly after the signing of the agreement, subject to the satisfaction of customary operational conditions.

Strategic portfolio enhancements

The proposed acquisition significantly strengthens SLB's overarching digital portfolio with differentiated, physics-based reservoir modeling capabilities. These advanced digital tools enable faster reservoir management decisions, which are critical to helping operators maximise overall resource recovery. Additionally, the integrated technology helps bridge the traditional gap between long-term development planning and active production execution across both complex and highly mature assets.

Highlighting the strategic importance of this move, Rakesh Jaggi, president of SLB's Digital business, stated, “Reservoir management is becoming increasingly dynamic as operators look to maximise recovery from existing assets”. Jaggi further elaborated on the expected synergies, stating, “The addition of Tachyus will strengthen our ability to deliver operational reservoir management workflows that help customers manage and optimise complex enhanced oil recovery schemes”.

Bridging planning and operations

As operators continually work to maximise recovery from their existing assets and simultaneously improve operational efficiency, the industry demand is rapidly increasing for technologies that support continuous reservoir management. While traditional high-fidelity reservoir simulators effectively support strategic field development decisions to optimise long-term recovery, Tachyus technologies uniquely enable operators to make more tactical decisions in response to rapidly changing operational conditions.

Tachyus achieves this by developing advanced software that seamlessly fuses machine learning with fundamental reservoir physics to effectively model reservoir behaviour under a vast array of different operating conditions. These technologies have the impressive capability to evaluate thousands of distinct reservoir scenarios in mere minutes. This rapid processing empowers reservoir and production teams to dynamically adjust field strategies based on current asset performance data while maintaining strict alignment with longer-term development plans.

The Aqueon Platform's global footprint

A core component of the newly acquired technology portfolio is the proprietary Aqueon platform. Highlighting its widespread industry adoption, the platform has already been deployed successfully across more than 7,500 wells globally. Operationally, the Aqueon platform actively supports a wide array of vital field functions, including waterflood management, precision pressure forecasting, and comprehensive production optimisation. Furthermore, it assists operators with saltwater disposal optimisation for complex unconventional operations, alongside driving enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations.

Future digital integration plans

SLB plans to seamlessly integrate Tachyus technology directly into its Delfi digital platform, as well as its Lumi data and AI platform, following the successful closing of the transaction. This deep integration is a crucial technological step that will enable robust, closed-loop reservoir and production management workflows across the organisation.

This strategic acquisition will continuously strengthen SLB's expansive capabilities in AI-driven reservoir modeling through the deployment of combined data- and physics-based models that continuously adapt to evolving reservoir behavior. In addition to acquiring these technological assets, the agreement will also bring additional, highly specialised reservoir engineering, data science, and software development expertise directly into SLB's broader digital organisation.

How do complacency and human factors contribute to workplace injuries, and how can you prevent complacency-related injuries and incidents?

That is the subject of a webinar hosted by HSE Review in association with SafeStart, to take place on Wednesday 1st April 2026 at 2pm GST, which will shine a light on the neuroscience behind competence, complacency and human factors.

Safety professionals have known for years that “complacency is a silent killer.” They have also suspected that complacency was a contributing factor in almost every unintentional injury or incident. Unfortunately, from a neuroscience perspective, it is impossible to stop people from becoming complacent once they are competent. And for high-risks tasks in particular, competence is a must.

Even more unfortunately, many (most) companies do not know what to do to help their employees deal with complacency, which leads to mind not on task/risk.

In this session, participants will:
• Understand the neuroscience behind complacency and why it cannot be eliminated once competence is achieved
• Recognise the two stages of the complacency continuum and how human factors impact critical decision-making
• Learn practical skills to prevent complacency-related injuries, including attentive habits, looking for risk patterns in others, analysing close calls and small errors to prevent agonising over large ones, and using self-triggering skills, to deal with rushing, frustration and fatigue which, when combined with complacency, can cause fatalities
• Explore how concepts such as fail-safe can help compensate for complacency leading to mind not on task.

Register for the webinar here

Our speaker is Larry Wilson, a pioneer in the area of Human Factors in safety. He has been a safety consultant for over 25 years and has worked on-site with hundreds of companies worldwide. Larry is the author of SafeStart, an advanced safety and performance awareness programme, successfully implemented in more than 4,500 companies in 75 countries, with more than five million people trained. He is the moderator of the SafeConnection expert panels series and has authored and co-authored a number of books, the latest being “25 Years of Original Thought-Innovations in Safety, Human Error and Performance”. Larry is also an active keynote speaker at health and safety conferences around the globe (32 countries so far).

Participants are guaranteed an hour of engaging and thought-provoking interactive discussion and debate and will take away the understanding, skills and strategies to help prevent complacency-related injuries and incidents.

So don’t delay, register for the webinar here

SafeStart Trainer Certification – Global Training Series

Following strong demand last year and impact across global markets, we’re also launching the SafeStart Trainer Certification – Global Training Series, starting with Dubai on 7–8 April 2026.

This is a practical, human factors–based certification designed to help organisations reduce incidents, strengthen decision-making, and improve overall safety performance, on and off the job.

Find out more information and register here:

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/