ADNOC Drilling is ready ‌to expand the United Arab Emirates' oil production capacity beyond its current target of 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027 if given ​the green light, the company's chief financial officer told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We're ready to deliver any production capacity that ADNOC needs," Youssef ​Salem said ​in an interview, referring to state-owned parent firm the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, when asked if the company was ready for a boost should the UAE request it.

The UAE, which quit OPEC on ⁠May 1 to free itself from production quotas, could boost its output capacity to 6 million bpd if necessary, Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said last year.

ADNOC DRILLING'S MULTIPLE PARTNERS

ADNOC Drilling has outpaced the UAE's accelerated capacity goals, reaching 142 deployed rigs by 2025, well ahead of a previous target of 127 rigs by 2030, Salem said.

"We have ​multiple providers from ‌China and elsewhere ⁠to bring in the rigs, ⁠we have the technologies, we have multiple partnerships with Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Patterson, others, we have the teams. So we have ​everything we need to kind of produce any form of demand from ADNOC," he ‌said, noting that first-quarter well deliveries rose from a year earlier.

The ⁠Abu Dhabi-listed firm has shielded its operations from recent shipping disruptions and tensions in the Gulf stemming from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, he said.

"We had no impact at all from the events," Salem said. "All the rigs kept working. We kept the availability of 98% of the rigs throughout the quarter."

To bypass the Strait of Hormuz, the company relies on land routes, the east coast port of Fujairah and a two- to three-month inventory buffer.

ADNOC Upstream CEO Musabbeh al-Kaabi told Reuters this month that the company expects a final investment decision this year on its unconventional gas project with TotalEnergies, followed soon after by a call on a separate unconventional ‌oil project with EOG Resources and Petronas.

Drilling is rapidly advancing to support these ⁠milestones, Salem said, with nearly 100 first-phase wells completed and more than 60 ​hydraulically fractured. EOG's joining the oil project after initial results was a positive signal, he added.

ADNOC Drilling's tech-focused joint venture Enersol spent roughly $800 million on four acquisitions in 2024, leaving it with around $700 million for other potential targets. Salem said the ​company's target to ‌deploy the remaining funds by 2027 is largely the same, though will depend on ⁠factors including valuations, which in the energy industry ​have surged along with oil prices.

(Reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)