Ruwais LNG Project is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility being developed in Abu Dhabi, the UAE.
The development of the project is led by the state-owned oil company ADNOC.
The Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project was made in June 2024. It is expected to commence production in 2028.
In July 2024, energy majors Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, and Japan’s Mitsui signed an agreement to invest in the project.
After the deal closes, ADNOC will hold majority 60% stake in the project and continue to serve as the operator of the facility, while Shell, BP, Mitsui and TotalEnergies will each hold 10%.
Once operational, Ruwais LNG Project will more than double ADNOC’s LNG production output from 6 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to around 15mmtpa and help in meeting increasing demand for natural gas.
Ruwais LNG Project Location
Ruwais LNG Project will be located in Al Ruwais Industrial City in Abu Dhabi.
Initially, the facility was planned to be developed in Fujairah. However, the location was shifted to Al Ruwais Industrial City due to its proximity to existing ADNOC’s operations and infrastructure.
Ruwais LNG Project Details
The Ruwais LNG project will operate on clean power, aligned with ADNOC’s goal to reach Net Zero by 2045.
The midstream natural gas liquefaction project will also be the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to operate on clean energy.
It will be equipped with two 4.8 mmtpa LNG liquefaction trains, providing the project with a total capacity of 9.6 mmtpa. Both the trains will run on clean power supplied by the national grid.
Ruwais LNG will adopt E-Drive design to use electric motors instead of conventional gas turbines to run the compressors that compress feed gas.
The facility will treat the feed gas, supplied by ADNOC from its gas asset portfolio, and then liquefy and sell it as LNG.
According to ADNOC, Ruwais LNG will also use artificial intelligence (AI), digitalisation, and to improve efficiency and safety throughout the plant.
The project is expected to have a lifespan of 20 years.
Ruwais LNG Project Contractors
In June 2024, a joint venture led by Technip Energies won the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the low-carbon Ruwais LNG project.
The contract value of the EPC for the LNG plant is nearly $5.5bn.
The two other partners in the JV are JGC and National Petroleum Construction Company (NMDC).
Initially, ADNOC issued a Limited Notice to Proceed (LNTP) for early EPC activities to the JV in March 2024.
In October 2023, energy technology company Baker Hughes received a contract worth more than $400m to deliver two electric liquefaction systems (e-LNG) for the project.
The LNG trains will be equipped with Baker Hughes’ 75MW BRUSH electric motor technology and the company’s latest compressor technology.
Offtake Agreements
As of November 2024, ADNOC has signed long-term agreements to supply 7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of the production capacity of the Ruwais LNG project to international customers.
In December 2023, ADNOC signed a 15-year Heads of Agreement with ENN LNG (Singapore), a wholly owned subsidiary of ENN Natural Gas to deliver at least 1mmtpa of LNG. The majority of the committed LNG will be sourced from Ruwais LNG project.
Osaka Gas signed an agreement in August 2024 for up to 0.8 mmtpa of LNG.
In September 2024, Indian Oil signed a long-term Heads of Agreement to procure 1mmtpa of LNG from the project.
With this deal, IndianOil will become ADNOC’s biggest LNG customer from 2029 taking deliveries of around 2.2mmtpa.
Mitsui has signed a basic agreement to offtake 0.6 million tonnes of LNG annually.
ADNOC signed a 15-year sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with SEFE Marketing and Trading Singapore, a subsidiary of Germany’s SEFE Securing Energy for Europe, for 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG.
The deliveries are expected to start from 2028 with the commencement of operations at Ruwais LNG.