ADNOC L&S expands fleet with five very large gas carriers

ADNOC L&S, the shipping and maritime logistics unit of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), has expanded its fleet with the deployment of five new-build Very Large Gas Carriers (VLGC).

The logistics and maritime services provider said the carriers have a capacity of 86,000 cubic metres. The gas carriers were built at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, China and will be owned and operated by AW Shipping – an ADNOC L&S joint venture with Wanhua Chemical Group (Wanhua).

“The addition of this new-build, lower-emission vessels to ADNOC L&S’ growing fleet of over 800 owned, operated and chartered vessels, represents another important milestone as we bolster our capacity to capitalise on growing global energy demand,” said Abdulkareem Al Masabi, the company’s CEO and chairman of AW Shipping.

The VLGCs, which transport liquified petroleum gas (LPG), are expected to provide ADNOC L&S greater flexibility to meet growing global gas demand as natural gas is playing a critical role as a lower carbon-intensity fuel for the energy transition.

ADNOC L&S expands its shipping fleet with five Very Large Gas Carriers #WamNew https://t.co/OL7ZVKvU7j pic.twitter.com/A7qr90uRLI

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The carriers have dual-fuel engine technology and use LPG as their primary fuel source, making them among the lowest-emission vessels of this type.

Read: ADNOC Drilling to acquire 10 hybrid power land rigs for $252m

AW Shipping will own and operate the carriers, transporting LPG cargoes sourced from Abu Dhabi and other global suppliers to Wanhua’s manufacturing bases in China and around the world.

The shipping company was formed in 2020 to support a 10-year LPG supply contract, signed in 2018 between the Abu Dhabi oil company and Wanhua.

ADNOC L&S growth strategy

Meanwhile, the shipping and maritime logistics has undertaken a global strategic expansion program to offer a broader service to its customers while supporting and enabling the growth of ADNOC’s upstream and downstream operations.

The Abu Dhabi firm has the most diversified fleet in the Middle East, owning 245 vessels and managing over 600 vessels annually. Its fleet and its 1.5 million square meters integrated logistics base in Abu Dhabi cements its position as one of the biggest maritime logistics companies in the world.

The company unveiled its integrated logistics services platform (ILSP) – one of the largest turnkey offshore logistics offerings in the world that enables coordinated end-to-end management of logistics and maritime operations at its base in Mussafah.

The shipping and maritime logistics major signed a $2.6bn (Dhs9.5bn) contract with ADNOC Offshore to provide integrated logistics services as part of the launch of the ILSP project. It closed the acquisition of Zakher Marine International, an Abu Dhabi-based owner and operator of offshore support vessels in December, a deal that grew the logistics firm’s regional footprint and creates new opportunities while broadening its services to include critical support assets for offshore operations.

The UAE is accelerating a plan to raise its oil production capacity, bringing forward ADNOC’s five million barrel per day oil production capacity expansion to 2027 from a previous target of 2030, to meet rising global energy demand.

Last year, ADNOC said the UAE’s hydrocarbon reserves soared by two billion stock tank barrels (STB) of mostly Murban-grade crude and one trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF) of natural gas.

Read: UAE plans global energy push with Adnoc’s $150bn spending

The state-energy firm’s ICV program has driven over Dhs35bn into the UAE’s economy and enabled 2,000 UAE Nationals to be employed in ADNOC’s supply chain. It is also supporting the ‘Make it in the Emirates’ initiative and it signed agreements for local manufacturing opportunities worth over Dhs25bn with UAE and international companies in 2022.