Energy markets at risk from ‘undersupply’: ADNOC CEO

Energy markets remained at risk from “undersupply” due to long-term under-investment in hydrocarbons, the group CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said March. 14 at an energy conference in Morocco.

“Unless more investments are injected into the oil and gas sector, there will be a shortage of supply in the coming years, because renewable energy sources alone are not sufficient to meet the growth in demand,” said Sultan Al Jaber, also the UAE’s minister of industry and advanced technology.

His comments followed a sharp price in crude oil prices following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the world’s second-biggest producer. The Platts-assessed Dated Brent benchmark was at $118.975/b on March. 11.

Last week, UAE energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei affirmed the producer’s commitment to the OPEC+ group’s monthly production increases. Saudi Arabia and Russia head the OPEC+ bloc, which has been incrementally bringing back supply to the markets, following historic production cuts in 2020 in response to the demand crunch induced by COVID-19.

“The UAE believes in the value OPEC+ brings to the oil market,” Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said on Twitter March 10. “The UAE is committed to the OPEC+ agreement and its existing monthly production adjustment mechanism.”

His comments came after an earlier contradictory statement by the Gulf country’s ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba who called for higher output from OPEC+.

The OPEC+ alliance, scheduled to meet March 31 to decide on May output levels, has been increasing monthly output by 400,000 b/d since August 2021 and agreed in a March 2 meeting to maintain that increase for April.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the group’s only producers with more than sufficient available spare capacity to help ease prices and make up for gaps caused by bans on Russian oil imports in countries like the US and UK.

According to the monthly S&P Global survey of OPEC output, the UAE produced 2.95 million b/d in February, just under its quota.

S&P Global analysts estimated that by May, Saudi Arabia will hold just under 1 million b/d of additional production upside, while the UAE will hold about 755,000 b/d. Every other OPEC member will have effectively reached their full capacity, with several plagued by severe instability in their oil production.
Source: Platts