ADNOC Awards Record Oil Storage Deal to SKEC

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has awarded South Korea’s SK Engineering and Construction Company a contract to build what it calls the largest underground project ever for oil storage. Under the terms of the deal, SKEC will construct three underground storage caverns in the Emirate of Fujairah on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates. Each cavern will have a capacity of 14 million bbl of crude oil, deep below ground- level. ADNOC said in a statement that the contract has a $1.21-billion value.

When completed in 2022, the Fujairah Underground Storage facility will be able to store three different types of crude oil, which ADNOC said will give it “increased flexibility” to export crude through Fujairah’s Arabian Sea oil terminal.

“ADNOC has a long and successful history of working with Korean companies as partners in our upstream concession areas, as contractors for major projects across the oil and gas value chain, and as a customer of Abu Dhabi’s crude oil and our refined products. This project is a testament to the strong strategic partnership between the UAE and South Korea and to the capability of SK Engineering and Construction,” Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, said in a statement.