UAE taps Occidental to boost oil capacity as OPEC cuts rankle

UAE taps Occidental to boost oil capacity as OPEC cuts rankle

The United Arab Emirates awarded oil-exploration rights to Occidental Petroleum Corp., moving quickly to expand output capacity just a week after the country clashed with its OPEC partners over production limits.

Government-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) picked Occidental to explore for oil and natural gas at a block in the desert along the UAE's border with Oman, it said on Wednesday in a statement. The block is adjacent to an exploration area that ADNOC awarded to Occidental last year.

Houston-based Occidental is set to invest as much as $140m in the new area, known as Onshore Block 5, during the exploration phase, the duration of which wasn't disclosed.

Abu Dhabi is the UAE's capital and largest emirate, and its fields produce almost all of the country's oil. The Supreme Petroleum Council, which sets Abu Dhabi's energy policy, last month approved a $122bn budget to help ADNOC boost production capacity by a fourth to 5 million barrels a day by 2030.

That target highlights the UAE's unhappiness with output limits imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers like Russia as the cartel tries to prop up oil markets.

The so-called OPEC+ alliance has capped the UAE's output at roughly