Abu Dhabi to invest over $25 bln in offshore oilfields

Abu Dhabi plans to invest over $25 billion in the next five years on boosting its oil production capacity from offshore fields, a senior official of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co said on Tuesday.

The plan is part of the United Arab Emirates' strategy of increasing its crude oil output potential to 3.5 million barrels
per day by 2017-18.

"We want to build capacity from production and from number of wells and infrastructure. Our current plan as ADNOC (is to reach) 3.5 million bpd and to sustain it," Qasem al-Kayoumi, manager of ADNOC's offshore division of the exploration and production directorate, told reporters.

He also said the investment plan for offshore drilling activities was $2.5 billion per year.