The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) is hoping to expand its operations in finding new oil and gas deposits over the next two years, the company's chief executive, Peter Barker-Homek, said yesterday. "Eventually we'll start getting into much more exploration," he added. That would start with more investment in the exploration side of the company's oil and gas business over the next 24 months, he said.
Abu Dhabi's energy companies, from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company operating within the emirate to companies such as Taqa, Mubadala Development and the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) with projects overseas, have traditionally taken a conservative approach to upstream oil and gas investment, concentrating most of their resources on developing known oil and gas fields rather than searching for new ones. But there are signs of a tentative shift towards more exploration.
Mubadala has been at the forefront of the trend. Since March last year the Government-owned conglomerate has signed four joint venture agreements with international and national oil companies to pursue oil and gas exploration in Libya, Kazakhstan, Oman and Bahrain. It also acquired Pearl Energy, which is focused on gas exploration and production in South East Asia, from Aabar Investments.
Now Taqa, which is 75 per cent owned by the Abu Dhabi Government, may be preparing to follow in Mubadala's footsteps. The company already has minor exploration programmes in areas where it produces oil and gas - the North Sea and the Rocky Mountains belt of Canada and the US - but it would like to expand them. Its progress, according to Mr Barker-Homek, will depend on its success at developing expertise in technical areas such as the interpretation of geophysical data from three-dimensional seismic surveys.
Mr Barker-Homek has already engineered Taqa's transformation from an Abu Dhabi utility into an international energy company with US$23 billion (Dh84.47bn) of oil, gas and electricity assets on four continents. Previously, he has stressed as a goal the integration of the company's power stations with its facilities for producing, storing and transporting fuel, which has led to a production focus on gas.
But that started to change last month when Taqa took over from Royal Dutch Shell as the operator of the North Sea pipeline system that transports the European benchmark Brent crude oil. Now Mr Barker-Homek is aiming for a 50-50 split between oil and gas in Taqa's oil and gas production portfolio, partly as a hedge against oil and gas prices heading in different directions. That has already happened in North America and the UK, although oil and gas prices remain more closely linked in continental Europe.
The plunge in North American gas prices this summer to their lowest in seven years while crude prices strengthened was an unwelcome surprise to the continent's gas producers which "no one saw coming", Mr Barker-Homek said. While he does not rule out future surprises, the Taqa chief said he expected gas prices to start recovering this winter and for crude in the long term to head higher due to rising global production costs.
"It's really hard to see a return to cheap oil because this region of the world isn't willing to deplete its cheap resources to feed the planet," he said. tcarlisle@thenational.ae
Under-21 European Championship Final
Germany 1 Spain 0
Weiser (40')
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
THE POPE'S ITINERARY
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
CHELSEA'S NEXT FIVE GAMES
Mar 10: Norwich(A)
Mar 13: Newcastle(H)
Mar 16: Lille(A)
Mar 19: Middlesbrough(A)
Apr 2: Brentford(H)
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Cargoz%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EDate%20started%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20January%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Premlal%20Pullisserry%20and%20Lijo%20Antony%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2030%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Seed%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
