UAE oil giant making ‘good progress’ with expansion plans in Saudi Arabia, executive says

Robert Nickelsberg/Liaison

Welders work on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve pipeline on June 1, 1980, in West Hackberry, Louisianna. Begun under President Ford to reduce the threat of oil embargoes, the SPR crude oil is stored in huge underground salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico, a natural choice due to the proximity of many refineries and distribution points.

ADNOC, which controls nearly all the proven oil reserves in the UAE region, reported a 24 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on Monday, despite a relatively challenging market environment.

The company, which debuted on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange at the end of 2017, posted a net profit of 581 million dirhams ($158.2 million) over the second quarter. Gross profit for the same period increased 33 percent, the company said in a statement, while gross profit margin rose to 25 percent, up from 22 percent from a year earlier.

ADNOC Distribution’s Carey described the fuel retailer’s earnings as “resilient,” before adding it showed the company was “on track” with its initiatives.

The oil giant’s initial public offering at the end of last year was part of a strategy by the UAE, as well as other Gulf nations, to privatize energy sector assets at a time when oil prices were relatively subdued.

Shares of the fuel distribution unit of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company have fallen more than 9 percent since the company’s IPO last December.