The UAE’s state oil company ADNOC announced a partnership with OpenAI on Monday, saying it would be the world’s first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier, an advanced artificial intelligence platform, Dawn reported, citing AFP.
The deal was announced as OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman attended the ADIPEC oil industry conference in Abu Dhabi, and Altman met Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed in the city.
What ADNOC says it will do
ADNOC said OpenAI’s models would let it be “the first energy company in the world to use this technology to value every barrel while it is still in the ground”. According to its statement:
- Data: the models will bring together decades of data across thousands of wells, stacked reservoirs and hundreds of surface facilities, with capital, cost and commercial factors, to prepare and optimise full-field development plans.
- AI agents: interconnected agents will continuously forecast crude supply, demand, prices and margins, and weigh the commercial and operational effect of each decision.
- G42: ADNOC and OpenAI will partner with G42, an Emirati AI company chaired by the brother of the UAE president.
“From the moment ChatGPT was born, the world has asked what energy can do for AI, and now together we will find out what AI can do for energy,” said ADNOC chief executive Sultan Al Jaber. Altman called the UAE “the most forward-looking country in the world for AI adoption”.
Saudi Arabia moves too
On Sunday, Saudi Aramco said it was taking a 49 percent stake in Humain, the Saudi state-backed AI company. Aramco will inject about 9.9 billion Saudi riyals ($2.6bn) into Humain this year, along with AI, computing and digital assets, as Humain tries to scale up to meet rising demand.
Background: the AI bet
The UAE has been betting on AI since 2017, when it named the world’s first AI minister and became the second country after Canada to publish a national AI strategy. G42 was founded a year later with backing from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, and employs more than 23,000 people. Last year, intense lobbying paid off when the US approved exports of advanced Nvidia chips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The deals come as Gulf producers struggle to export oil: Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz and targeted tankers, though the US military has been escorting ships through the route. Aramco has also been under attack, with Houthi strikes forcing it to evacuate its Dhahran headquarters last month. OpenAI, meanwhile, is seeking $30 billion in new funding.
Why it matters
Gulf oil states are trying to use their cash and energy to become AI powers, so their economies depend less on selling crude. ADNOC’s deal tests whether AI can make oil production cheaper and more efficient, while Aramco’s stake in Humain makes one of the world’s biggest companies a major AI investor.
What we don’t know: the financial terms of the ADNOC-OpenAI partnership, which the statement did not disclose, and how soon the systems will go into use.
This article draws on reporting by Dawn.
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