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UAE Presents Phenomenal Plan To Boost Its Position As Oil Hub
By Simon Watkins - Apr 06, 2021, 7:00 PM CDT
Three key developments were announced last week by the UAE in line with its role as a principal member of the U.S.’s new Middle East strategy to counter China’s dramatically increasing influence over the region: plans for a major economic expansion; plans to attract more oil trade into new contracts; and plans to counter Iranian threats to oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.
The first of these developments - announced by UAE Vice President and Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai – is ‘Operation 300 Billion’. This is an initiative that intends to raise the contribution of the UAE’s industrial sector to AED300 billion (US$81 billion) from the current AED133 billion within the next 10 years. The objective will be achieved in large part through the creation of 13,500 industrial companies over that period, covering the manufacturing, construction, electricity, gas, mining and quarrying sectors in the first instance. At the centre of these plans, which in turn fall within the UAE’s Circular Economy Policy 2021-2031, will be an adjunct build-out of the UAE’s energy sector. This includes an overall target crude oil production increase for the UAE’s flagship oil and gas company – the Abu Dhabi Oil Company (ADNOC) – from around 4 million barrels per day (bpd) to at least 5 million bpd by 2030 at the latest.