The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) will increase production of gas liquids by more than 50 per cent due to growing market demand, a top company official said."Adnoc has recognised the demand growth and has planned projects to increase the production of gas liquids by more than 50 per cent in the next five years," said Kamal Morsi of Adnoc's Onshore Division, Exploration and Production Directorate.
Adnoc's current production of natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas liquids such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and condensates is equivalent to 1.2 million barrels of oil production each day or roughly half the current crude production of the UAE."This gas liquids production does not fall under the Opec constraint on crude oil production and market demand is concurrently growing faster than oil around the world. Adnoc has recognised this demand growth and has planned projects to increase the production of gas liquids by more than 50 per cent in the next five years," Morsi said at a recent seminar.
"Sour gas production is likely to become a more important part of this production," he added.In his paper, Morsi provided an overview of the injection of carbon-dioxide (CO2) into existing oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR)."The process would be economical for oil recovery and it reduces the utilisation of valuable methane gas for injection, but it also helps reduce CO2 emissions into the global atmosphere.Sour gas represents both associated and non-associated gas production which includes hydrogen sulphide in its natural state in the hydrocarbon reservoirs.
The UAE's natural gas reserves are about 212 trillion cubic feet largely located in Abu Dhabi, the fifth largest in the world.Increased domestic consumption of electricity and growing demand from the petrochemical industry has provided incentives for the UAE to increase its use of natural gas.The consumption has doubled in Abu Dhabi over the last decade and is projected to reach four billion cubic feet by 2005.