MOSCOW (MRC) -- His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office and Chairman of the Executive Committee of ADNOC’s Board of Directors, has launched a landmark clean energy partnership between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and EWEC (Emirates Water and Electricity Company), according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The strategic partnership, which is the largest of its kind in the oil and gas industry, will see up to 100% of ADNOC’s grid power supplied by EWEC’s nuclear and solar clean energy sources, making ADNOC the first major oil and gas company to decarbonize its power at scale through a clean power agreement and strengthening the company’s position as one of the world’s least carbon-intensive oil and gas producers.
Simultaneously, EWEC will benefit from long-term electricity offtake for its current and future renewable and clean power sources, which include solar and nuclear power, enabling continued investment in transformative innovations to decarbonize the energy sector.
This progressive approach supports the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative and enhances ADNOC’s pathway to decarbonization while enabling sustainable future growth. It also underpins the UAE’s bold and strategic approach to enable a lower carbon future.
Commenting on the agreement, His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan emphasized the importance of capitalizing on opportunities to achieve the UAE 2050 Net Zero Emissions Target.
The agreement was signed by His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director and Group CEO of ADNOC, and His Excellency Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Chief Executive Officer of ADQ and Chairman of EWEC.
The clean energy partnership reinforces ADNOC’s role as a leading global supplier of lower carbon oil and gas products and builds on its legacy of responsible hydrocarbon production. Murban, ADNOC’s flagship crude grade, already has a carbon intensity that is less than half the industry average, a figure that will be further improved as a result of this agreement.
Murban was made more accessible to global market participants following the start of trading of the Murban Futures Contract on ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD) earlier this yr, and is well positioned as the lowest carbon crude oil of choice for countries and refiners seeking to lower the carbon intensity of their hydrocarbon products.
On the refined products side, the new partnership will further reduce the carbon intensity of ADNOC products. For example, ADNOC is a large producer of aviation fuel, which is sold to customers both locally and globally. The new clean energy agreement will lower the carbon intensity of ADNOC’s aviation fuel, positioning it as one of the lowest carbon intensity Jet-A1 fuels available and an important enabler of ongoing decarbonization efforts in the aviation sector.
As part of the partnership, the clean energy supplied to ADNOC will be validated via I-REC Clean Energy Certificates registered by EWEC.
EWEC has a growing portfolio of renewable and clean energy projects, led by Noor Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest single-site solar power plant. Noor Abu Dhabi produces approximately 1.2 gigawatts of power resulting in a carbon footprint reduction of 1 MM metric tons per yr, which is equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road. EWEC is also developing the Al Dhafra Solar PV IPP project, which will be the new world’s largest single-site solar power plant, using approximately 4 MM solar panels to generate enough electricity for approximately 160,000 homes across the UAE. Upon full commercial operation, Al Dhafra Solar PV is expected to reduce Abu Dhabi’s CO2 emissions by more than 2.4 MM metric tons per yr, equivalent to removing approximately 470,000 cars from the road.
The new clean energy partnership will accelerate ADNOC’s sustainability goal of decreasing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity by 25% by 2030 and offers the potential for additional value and operational efficiencies.
As MRC wrote before, in August 2021, ADNOC partnered with Fertiglobe for the sale of blue ammonia to Idemitsu in Japan, for use in its refining and petrochemicals operations.
We remind that in June 2021, Indian refining giant Reliance Industries signed an agreement with ADNOC to build a multi-billion-dollar chemical project in Ruwais, marking the group’s first investment in a greenfield overseas project.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
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