Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a series of agreements to strengthen their energy cooperation.
National oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has awarded Lukoil a 5% interest in the Ghasha sour gas concession, which includes the Hail, Ghasha, Dalma and other fields offshore Abu Dhabi, and which is expected to produce more than 1.5 bcf/d (42 mcm/d or 15.5 bcm/year) of gas and over 120 kb/d of oil and condensate. Lukoil will invest AED 697m (US$190m) as a signing fee in the Ghasha project. Other partners in the project include Eni, Wintershall and OMV. Moreover, ADNOC also signed a framework agreement with Lukoil and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to explore future cooperation in the concession.
ADNOC has also signed a strategic framework agreement with Gazprom Neft to cooperate on upstream (exploration and production concessions, sour gas, enhanced oil recovery) downstream and new technologies. The agreement will extend Gazprom Neft's cooperation projects with Emirati companies to activities in the Middle East, since the company had already set up a joint venture with Mubadala to develop fields in the Omsk and Tomsk regions of Russia.
Finally, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rosatom to cooperate on nuclear energy. The scope of the MoU covers plant development and investment as well as nuclear fuel cycle management, among others.