Adnoc has signed a 15-year Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Japan’s largest exploration and production company, Inpex Corporation, to supply 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Ruwais LNG project.

The agreement was announced during a visit to Japan by Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Adnoc Managing Director and Group CEO, and Executive Chairman of XRG.

The visit included meetings with senior Japanese government and business leaders aimed at strengthening the UAE and Japan’s long-standing energy partnership, which spans more than six decades.

The deal deepens Adnoc’s longstanding relationship with Inpex, a key upstream partner in Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas sector.

It also supports Inpex Vision 2035, which seeks to expand and diversify the company’s LNG portfolio through additional long-term supply.

The LNG will be supplied primarily from the Ruwais LNG project in Al Ruwais Industrial City, Abu Dhabi, which is scheduled to begin commercial operations in 2028.

The agreement marks another milestone in Adnoc’s global LNG expansion strategy, with around 90 per cent of the project’s 9.6 mtpa production capacity already committed to customers across Asia and Europe.

The Ruwais facility will be the first LNG export plant in the Middle East and Africa to operate on clean power and is designed to be among the world’s lowest-carbon intensity LNG plants.

It will also incorporate artificial intelligence and advanced technologies to improve efficiency, safety and emissions performance.

Adnoc Gas expects to acquire Adnoc’s 60 per cent stake in the project in 2028, a move that would more than double its operated LNG production capacity to approximately 15 mtpa.

Nasser Al Muhairi, Acting CEO of Adnoc Downstream Industry, Marketing & Trading, and Chairman of Ruwais LNG, said: “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. It builds on Adnoc’s decades-long energy partnership with Japan, advances the commercialisation of Ruwais LNG and reinforces strong market confidence in the project. 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.” -OGN/TradeArabia News Service