ABU DHABI - The Reserves.

For years Abu Dhabi's proven recoverable oil reserves have been estimated at 92.2 bn barrels. There are more than 200 bn barrels of oil in place in the emirate yet to be appraised for future development. To compare, the proven reserves of the other UAE emirates are less than 6 bn barrels.

Abu Dhabi's recoverable reserves of natural gas are officially estimated at 190 TCF (5.7 TCM), proven by data for both non-associated and associated gas. Experts at ADNOC say the emirate's recoverable gas reserves could be larger. In early 1990 then UAE Oil Minister Otaiba told the monthly magazine Dira' Al Watan the UAE's gas reserves exceeded 354 TCF. He was referring mainly to Abu Dhabi, as the oil and gas reserves of the other emirates do not even account for 5% of the UAE's total. Abu Dhabi's large non-associated gas fields are offshore. But most of the non-associated gas has high sulphur content, with the cost of extracting and processing it being high. A joint ADNOC-Shell study says development of sour gas reserves is feasible (see Gas Market Trends).

Apart from the priority of expanding Abu Dhabi's oil production capacity, development of the gas sector is the focus as local demand is expected to rise rapidly in the coming years. ADNOC has been considering a $7.5 bn plan to develop sour gas in ADCO's onshore Hail, Shah and Bab oilfields to produce 2,300 MCF/day. By 2010, when local demand could have reached almost 10,000 MCF/d, Abu Dhabi's onshore and offshore gas production would have exceeded 8,000 MCF/d, with the deficit to be met by imports from Qatar through the Dolphin project (see Part 3). Abu Dhabi's onshore and offshore gas production capacity has reached more than 6,000 MCF/d, with a big part reinjected into the oilfields. By mid-1996, the gas production capacity had exceeded 4,000 MCF/d, from a little over 2,000 MCF/d in 1994 and about 1,800 MCF/d in 1992.