Within the Al Ruwais Industrial City of Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in the Middle East and Africa to run on clean power under development.
In 2024, initial engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activity began at what will become one of the lowest-carbon-intensity LNG plants in the world. ADNOC had awarded $5.5 billion in EPC contracts to a joint venture led by France-based Technip Energies, Japan-based JGC Corporation and the UAE-based MNDC Group for the project’s construction. Aside from the facility’s low carbon benefits, the project is anticipated to more than double ADNOC’s LNG production output.
Known as the Ruwais LNG project, the upcoming facility will feature two LNG liquefaction trains that will each hold a 4.8 million tons per annum (mtpa) capacity. That 9.6-mtpa influx will bring ADNOC’s annual production capacity to about 15 mtpa. Commercial operations at the site are expected to begin by 2028.
In July 2026, ADNOC announced that a 15-year sales and purchase agreement had been signed by its subsidiary ADNOC Ruwais LNG and INPEX Energy Trading Singapore, a subsidiary of Japan-based oil company INPEX Corporation. The agreement will enable INPEX to procure supply of 1 mtpa of LNG from the Ruwais project.
“This SPA with INPEX marks the first long-term LNG agreement announced following the launch of ADNOC and XRG’s integrated global LNG marketing and trading platform, demonstrating how we are bringing more LNG molecules, greater market access and enhanced commercial flexibility to our customers,” said ADNOC Acting CEO of Downstream Industry, Marketing & Trading and Chairman of Ruwais LNG Nasser Al Muhairi.
“It builds on ADNOC’s decades-long energy partnership with Japan, advances the commercialization of Ruwais LNG and reinforces strong market confidence in the project,” he continued. “As ADNOC and XRG target 47 mtpa of combined marketable LNG by 2035, Ruwais LNG will be a key source of reliable, flexible and lower-carbon supply for customers in Asia and around the world.”
The initiative aligns directly with the company’s INPEX Vision 2035 strategy, aiming to strengthen Japan’s LNG portfolio and create a flexible supply chain to complement LNG supply from its own projects. INPEX Corporation noted in its official press release that the agreement “further strengthens the longstanding relationship between INPEX and the ADNOC Group.”
