ADNOC's historic agreement

Oil & Gas Middle East is back with its weekly LinkedIn newsletter to give you a roundup of all the major updates and announcements from the upstream sector in the Middle East region. From project announcements to management changes, this week was buzzing with activity in the upstream sector.

Here are the top five stories of the week:

1. ADNOC, Petronas sign historic agreement for unconventional oil block

ADNOC and Malaysian giant Petronas have signed a landmark agreement for Abu Dhabi’s first-ever onshore unconventional oil block covering a 2000-square kilometre concession area in the Al Dhafra region.

“Petronas will hold 100% equity and operatorship to explore and appraise unconventional oil in the concession area for a period up to six years,” Petronas said on Monday.

2. Saudi Aramco signs major deal with China’s Shandong Energy

Saudi oil major Aramco signed today a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which includes a potential crude oil supply agreement and chemicals products offtake agreement, supporting Aramco’s role in building a thriving downstream sector in Shandong Province.?

The move strengthens Aramco’s efforts to supply energy, petrochemicals and non-metallics to China as the company seeks to expand its liquids to chemicals capacity to up to 4 million barrels per day by 2030.

3. Petronas makes ‘significant’ oil and gas discovery offshore Malaysia

Petronas’ wholly-owned subsidiary Petronas Carigali has announced an oil and gas discovery?in Block SK306 offshore Malaysia, which is located in the shallow waters of the Balingian Province off the coast of Sarawak.

Drilled to a total depth of 2,468m, the Nahara-1 well encountered hydrocarbons in the Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene aged sedimentary sequences.

4. Exclusive: Offsetting carbon, the Halal way

The Arab Petroleum Investments Corp (APICORP), an energy-focused multilateral financial institution,?announced plans?in November to establish the first-of-its-kind Islamic Shariah facility in the MENA region to fund voluntary carbon offsets, which will be used to develop environmentally friendly projects worldwide.

In an exclusive interview with?Oil & Gas Middle East, Nicolas Thévenot, managing director of corporate banking at APICORP, discusses more.

5. ADNOC, TAQA, Mubadala complete Masdar stake deal

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) has paid $1.02 billion in cash for its stake in Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), following an agreement to become Masdar’s shareholder alongside ADNOC and Mubadala Investment Co.

TAQA said in a statement on Thursday that the transaction, which sets out to create a global clean energy powerhouse, will see it acquire a 43% controlling stake in Masdar’s renewables business with Mubadala retaining a 33% interest, and ADNOC owning the remaining 24%.