RIYADH: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is investing $763.7 million to support its production capacity expansion to 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030.

The spending will go toward its integrated rigless services across six of its artificial islands in the Upper Zakum and Satah Al Razboot fields, it said in a filing.

The investment comes as the UAE pushes to raise its own production quota within a pact by OPEC+ oil producers to stabilize the oil market as it slowly emerges from a year of pandemic lockdowns that depressed demand for gasoline.

Contracts were awarded by ADNOC Offshore to Schlumberger ($381.2 million), ADNOC Drilling ($228.7 million) , and Halliburton ($153.9 million) to complete the work.

“These important awards for integrated rigless services will drive efficiencies of drilling and related services, and optimize costs in our offshore operations as we ramp up our drilling activities to increase our production capacity and enable gas self-sufficiency for the UAE,” said Yaser Saeed Almazrouei, ADNOC upstream executive director.

The six artificial islands covered by the awards are Asseifiya, Ettouk, Al Ghallan, and Umm Al Anbar in the Upper Zakum field and Al Qatia and Bu Sikeen in the SARB field.

Artificial islands provide significant cost and environmental benefits, particularly in shallow water, by enabling the use of lower-cost land-drilling rigs instead of higher-cost offshore jack-up drilling rigs, ADNOC said.