ADNOC AND SOCAR TO COLLABORATE ON HYDROGEN, CARBON MANAGEMENT AND GEOTHERMAL TECHNOLOGIES

ADNOC and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) announced the signing of a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) that sets out their intention to collaborate on the potential development of low-carbon energy technologies. The SCA follows both ADNOC and SOCAR becoming founding signatories of the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, signed at COP28, that sets shared targets to eliminate routine flaring and zero out methane emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.

As part of the SCA, ADNOC and SOCAR will explore opportunities to work together to advance blue hydrogen, carbon management and geothermal technologies that can accelerate the decarbonization of energy systems in the UAE, Azerbaijan and other key markets and support their net zero ambitions.

The SCA builds on the strategic bilateral energy cooperation between the UAE and Azerbaijan, including the 30% stake held by ADNOC in the Absheron gas and condensate field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. It also builds on ADNOC’s shareholding in Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar). Masdar recently inaugurated the 230MW Garadagh Solar Park in Azerbaijan, the region’s largest operational solar park.

ADNOC has initially allocated $15 billion (AED55 billion) to advance and accelerate lower-carbon solutions, new energies and decarbonization technologies as it reduces its carbon intensity by 25% by 2030 and works towards net zero by 2045. ADNOC is also targeting carbon dioxide (CO2) capture capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2030. ADNOC also announced the successful start-up of geothermal district cooling in Masdar City, the first project in the Gulf region to harness geothermal energy.