The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) will shut its onshore Bab oilfield in July for maintenance. The shutdown will start at the end of June and will last about four weeks. The field’s entire output at more than 370,000 bpd will be offline during.
The Bab field produces the flagship light, sour grade Murban crude.
Last year, ADNOC revealed plans to increase the field’s long-term crude production capacity to 485,000 bpd by the end of 2020 or early 2021, from the current nameplate of 420,000 bpd.
The maintenance shutdown will coincide with the final month of the extension of the oil production cut pact between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its non-member oil producer allies (OPEC+), where the UAE is a participant.
Under the agreement, the country has to cut output to 2.44 million bpd in May to July, and 2.59 million bpd in the August-December period. This month, the UAE along with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait voluntarily deepens the output cut to about 2.35 million bpd.
ADNOC will still apply the 5% cuts to client nominations for August-loading volumes for its four main grades, in accordance with July restrictions.
