The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and ConocoPhillips signed a deal on Thursday for a multi-billion dollar project to develop the Shah gas field in the United Arab Emirates, ADNOC said in a statement. The UAE holds the world's fifth-largest gas reserves but has failed to keep up with rising domestic demand from a petrodollar-fuelled economy. The Shah gas project, with an estimated cost of around $10 billion, is part of plans to boost domestic gas supply. Growth in the world's third-largest oil exporter has slowed with the global downturn, but the Gulf Arab state remains dependent on gas imports from Qatar to fire power stations and meet the needs of industry. The Shah joint venture would process around 1 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of sour gas from the Shah field to pump around 540 million cfd of gas suitable for consumption, ADNOC said in the statement. ADNOC awarded Conoco the contract last February, but negotiations on the final deal have taken over a year to conclude.
