Abu
Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Company Ltd.
Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Company Ltd is one of
the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Group of
Companies. ADNOC owns 70% of its shares, while 15%
is owned by Mitsui and Co., of Japan, 10% by British
Petroleum (BP) and the remaining 5% by the French
Total.
ADGAS was conceived of in the late sixties of the
last century in accordance with the sublime directives
of His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan
President of UAE and His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin
Zayed Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Chairman
of the Supreme Petroleum Council, to put an end to
the wasteful flaring at that time of the associated
gas that is a by-product of oil production. Flaring
of gas contributed to increased air pollution and
meant a loss of valuable national wealth.
To prevent flaring, and due to the availability of
large volumes of gas reserves in Abu Dhabi, discussions
were held between ADNOC and its partners to determine
the best way to utilize the Gas and find the right
partner to purchase it. Agreement was reached between
ADNOC and its partners on one side, and Tokyo Electric
Power Company (TEPCO), on the other side, to construct
an LNG Plant to process the gas and export it in liquid
form to Japan. Through the liquefaction process, the
gas will be cooled down to -160oC and its volume will
be reduced to 1/600 of its gaseous form to make its
shipment on special LNG carriers commercially and
economically viable.
ADGAS was established in March 1973. In December that
year, and as part of the second anniversary of the
UAE's National Day celebrations, His Highness President
Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan kindly laid the
Plant's cornerstone in DAS island.
The construction of the plant was completed early
in 1977 and on 29th April that year, the first LNG
shipment was exported to Japan.
ADGAS thus pioneered the gas liquefaction industry
not only in the Gulf area, but in the whole Middle
East as well. At that time, ADGAS LNG plant was a
big industrial and technical achievement.
When constructed, the Plant was comprised of two identical
process trains with its design production capacity
amounted to 2.3 million tons of LNG, in addition to
1.3 million tons of Propane, Butane and Pentane per
annum.
In 1994 the Third Process Train was built. As the
world's largest at that time, this Train produces
up to 2.5 million tons of LNG per annum.
Due to modifications and de-bottlenecking, ADGAS LNG
Plant production continued to increase to around 5.8
million tons per year. This has led to a production
surplus that had to be marketed elsewhere in addition
to supplying ADGAS primary customer (TEPCO). LNG has
been exported to a number of major companies in France,
Spain, Italy, USA and Korea.
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