Monday, May 25, 2015

Abu Dhabi: A top executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) said Andoc will not cut its research and development budget despite the recent drop in oil prices.

Yasser Saeed Al Mazrouei, deputy director of exploration and production at Adnoc, said some companies have been cutting expenditures by 10 to 15 per cent this year.

“We’ve seen a lot of companies laying off workers and reducing their numbers. We did not go through this,” said Yasser Saeed Al Mazrouei, deputy director of exploration and production at Adnoc.

“On the contrary, we’ve been pushed by the management to advance the development of the UAE nationals in the R&D (Research and Development).”

He was speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi International Research and Development Conference and Exhibition on Sunday.

He said the management is keen to work in R&D (Research and Development) to develop technology.

“R&D budget has been increasing proportionately over the years and we’ve never been asked to put a cap on our budget. For the past ten years, we’ve been investing on research and development. Whenever we had a proposal it was never dropped.”

Oil prices have gone down by more than 50 per cent in recent times due to record shale oil production from the US and weakening global demand. From $115 in June, oil prices slumped to less than $50 in June before recovering later on.

The UAE government announced that they will continue to invest in oil and gas sector to increase oil production to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2017 despite plunge in oil prices. The country currently produces about 2.8 million barrels per day.

A key meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is due to take place in Vienna next month to take stock of the situation and decide on the future course of action related to slide in oil prices.

By Fareed Rahman Senior Business Reporter

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