Abu Dhabi (AFP) - The UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced Monday a partnership with OpenAI, confirming that it will become the first energy company in the world to use the advanced OpenAI Frontier platform for artificial intelligence.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 10:45

The agreement was announced during the opening of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), in the presence of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, at a time when the UAE is betting strongly on this technology to diversify its economy independently of the energy sector.

The Gulf countries have been facing difficulties in exporting oil since Iran began imposing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz and targeting oil tankers in the region, but the US military is now accompanying ships as they cross the waterway.

The blockade led to a sharp rise in oil prices.

ADNOC said in a statement that OpenAI's models will enable it to become "the first energy company in the world to use this technology to determine the value of every barrel of oil while it is still in the ground."

The partnership will also include the Emirati company G42, which specializes in artificial intelligence, whose board of directors is headed by the brother of the President of the UAE, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The oil-rich UAE is one of the most prominent countries in the field of artificial intelligence in the Middle East, and seeks to become a leading global force in this sector.

The Managing Director and CEO of ADNOC and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Sultan Al Jaber, said during the conference, “The world has been wondering since the birth of GBT Chat what energy can offer to artificial intelligence, and now we will discover together what artificial intelligence can offer to energy.”

Al Jaber added that the agreement will make ADNOC "the first energy company in the world to use the OpenAI Frontier platform."

Altman praised the UAE, saying that it "has consistently been the most forward-looking country in the world in adopting artificial intelligence."

According to an ADNOC statement, “OpenAI’s advanced inference models will integrate data accumulated over decades from thousands of wells, multiple layers of oil reservoirs, and hundreds of surface facilities, along with considerations related to capital, costs, and commercial aspects, to prepare comprehensive master plans for field development and improvement.”

The statement added, "The interconnected artificial intelligence agents will continuously forecast crude oil supplies, demand, prices, and profit margins, anticipate their impacts before they occur, and evaluate the commercial and operational impact of each decision within one integrated process."

No financial details of the agreement were revealed.

Al-Jaber said, referring to the repercussions of the unrest in the Strait of Hormuz, “The cost of shipping and electricity before the disruption was less than 5% of the price of a barrel of oil, but today it exceeds 30%.”

New agreements

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the meeting witnessed the signing of a series of agreements to expand the use of artificial intelligence in government institutions, investment funds and companies, including the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

The Abu Dhabi government and OpenAI announced the launch of what it described as “the first government initiative in the world based on artificial intelligence and machine readable,” in a step towards transforming Abu Dhabi into the first government in the world based on artificial intelligence.

The initiative will allow the use of artificial intelligence systems to assist officials in reviewing compliance with regulatory regulations and issuing permits and certificates, while a pilot project related to food imports has already begun operating at the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority.

Mubadala Investment Company, Inception 42, and Open AI also signed an agreement to employ advanced artificial intelligence capabilities in analyzing investments, identifying opportunities, and evaluating risks, in addition to a five-year agreement to adopt the “Frontier” artificial intelligence platform in the government, corporate, and education sectors.

The UAE has been betting heavily on artificial intelligence since 2017, when it appointed the world's first Minister of Artificial Intelligence, and became the second country after Canada to announce a national strategy in this field.

A year later, G42 was established with support from the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala. Its Board of Directors is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and it offers a range of artificial intelligence products and employs more than 23,000 people.

Last year, intense efforts resulted in the United States agreeing to export advanced chips from Nvidia to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, the state-owned Saudi Aramco announced that it would acquire a 49% stake in the state-backed artificial intelligence company, Humane, by pumping money and assets into the company, which seeks to expand the scope of its business to meet increasing demand.

Aramco, one of the largest companies in the world by market value, will pump about 9.9 billion Saudi riyals ($2.6 billion) into Humane during the current year, along with assets in the fields of artificial intelligence, computing capabilities and digital technology.

© 2026 AFP

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