UAE merges Supreme Petroleum Council with new economic body

ABU DHABI--Emirati President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, in his capacity as the ruler of Abu Dhabi, has established a Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs that will also oversee matters relating to petroleum and natural resources.

The council will be chaired by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi media office said in a tweet.

The current Supreme Petroleum Council, which regulates petroleum-related policies, will be merged with this new body, the media office added in its tweet Sunday.

Its members will continue to exercise their role as Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) board members until a new board is appointed.

“The council’s methodology allows the boards of concerned authorities the corporate autonomy to develop their strategies to be approved by the council, and the independence to develop, approve and implement their annual plans,” the media office said.

The new council, the Emirati news agency WAM reported, “will work primarily and directly with the Department of Finance, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala, ADNOC, ADQ, and other entities within the scope of the council’s mandate.”

Its board members, who will have a three-year term, include Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan al-Jaber, who is also CEO of ADNOC, the UAE’s biggest energy producer. Other board members include Khaldoon al-Mubarak, CEO of sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. Both are members of the SPC, according to ADNOC’s website.

The UAE is a leading oil producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and ADNOC pumps most of the oil produced in the country.

The UAE produced 2.51 million b/d in November, according to the latest S&P Global Platts OPEC+ survey, below its 2.59 million b/d quota.

The OPEC+ alliance, which was supposed to ease its production cuts in January by increasing collective output by 1.9 million b/d, decided in a December meeting to raise production by only 500,000 b/d to temper weak global oil demand.

The UAE’s January quota will be 2.626 million b/d in January, instead of the 2.735 million b/d that was originally slated for next month under the old OPEC+ agreement.

Such changes to OPEC+ agreements and the anaemic oil demand outlook may frustrate the UAE’s plans for ambitious oil growth, which were hammered prior to this year’s historic 9.7 million b/d collective cut implemented in May.