{"id":114779,"date":"2026-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/?p=114779"},"modified":"2026-05-04T06:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:35:22","slug":"on-its-third-day-of-independence-from-opec-the-uae-is-clearly-aiming-to-reach-escape-velocity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/05\/04\/on-its-third-day-of-independence-from-opec-the-uae-is-clearly-aiming-to-reach-escape-velocity\/","title":{"rendered":"On its third day of independence from OPEC, the UAE is clearly aiming to reach escape velocity"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s day three of the New Oil Order, and [redacted]\u2019s already getting interesting: <\/strong>OPEC+ pushed ahead yesterday with a 188k barrel per day increase in production for June\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026and ADNOC boss Sultan Al Jaber just unleashed a USD 55 bn oil and gas <\/strong>contract-award<\/strong> program through 2028 as the UAE looks to hit (and presumably blow past) its goal of 5 mn barrels of production per day by 2027. <\/p>\n

Perhaps even more interesting:<\/strong> What ADNOC is billing as a \u201cLocal+\u201d expansion of the in-country value program will pump bns of USD into the UAE economy over the next five years as it brings more Emirates-based companies into the energy industry supply chain. For a certain type of company, that\u2019s a pretty big anchor against any tendency to declare some other city its \u201cregional headquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UAE\u2019s push comes as the amateur Orientalists continue their tour of our region<\/strong>, saying Saudi\u2019s pullback from gigaprojects \u201craises questions about its plans\u201d<\/a> and suggesting that the \u201cSaudi mirage\u201d is fading<\/a>. <\/p>\n

One of the smartest guys we know in MENA+ said he thought there was an outside <\/strong>chance that Iran\u2019s attacks on the region could have been a watershed moment <\/strong>\u2014 that we could have seen the burying of the hatchet between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and, with it, a new push on joint military procurement and defense strategy. <\/p>\n

Hot Tub Time Machine: <\/strong>Instead, there\u2019s a very real risk we may be sliding back into the 1980s and 1990s \u2014 when low oil prices were a cap on economies across the region. The UAE is clearly betting that it is so far down the diversification highway that if that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s better to go it alone and be the first to hit escape velocity. \u2013Patrick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A USD 55 bn oil-and-gas contract-award program is going to fuel the UAE\u2019s bid to diversify its economy faster than Saudi can gain ground<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2604],"tags":[2591,2850,2538,2843,2603],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-114779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opening-note","tag-adnoc","tag-energy-watch","tag-enterpriseam","tag-opec","tag-opening-note","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"7ad81a55-d7a4-4485-9a04-9960e4224079","order":"1","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"The UAE is looking to hit escape velocity","related_issue":[114777],"teaser":"A USD 55 bn oil-and-gas contract-award program is going to fuel the UAE\u2019s bid to diversify its economy faster than Saudi can gain ground"},"yoast_head":"\nOn its third day of independence from OPEC, the UAE is clearly aiming to reach escape velocity - 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