DUBAI – Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has just revealed plans to expand into the Saudi market during 2014 by providing service stations as well as aviation services in Saudi Arabia. “We are at the final discussion (stage) with the operator who will be operating as a franchisee to Adnoc distribution. We definitely have ambitious plans to go beyond the boundary limits,” said Adnoc CEO, Abdullah Al Dhaheri. Al Dhaheri said there are currently approximately 110 stations under discussion, with 21 of them under construction and around 80 under design, or under discussion to allocate the land. The stations should be operational within the next two years. Adnoc's latest ventures included acquiring 75 stations from Emirat Petroleum. Two of those have been re-branded and had soft openings, while the rest will take 18 months to be completed. This brings up the company's total service stations to around 300 — with 150 of those located in the northern emirates, and the rest in Abu Dhabi emirate. Al Dhaheri also said that talks are in progress to acquire 24 service stations from Enoc in Sharjah by early 2014. In addition to its current services, Adnoc Distribution has recently started handling the city gas initiative for gas distribution within the Abu Dhabi emirate, and will expand in the field of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for vehicles. The company has already constructed around 17 CNG service stations in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah (out of which 13 are in Abu Dhabi). Adnoc plans to add 14 service stations, which will be located on the main highways to and from the capital. The final stage of the project, Al Dhaheri said, will see 35 additional CNG service stations in Abu Dhabi. Al Dhaheri added that the company is in the process of expanding its storage facilities. “It is to become much more of arm's length to our consumer. It will be much closer to our consumer. We're expanding in Abu Dhabi Airport, and we are expanding in Ras Al Khaima Depo. We are also looking at the opportunity to construct a new terminal in Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi. – Agencies
