ADNOC, the UAE’s state oil company, and the Emirati AI firm G42 signed a deal with OpenAI on Monday to bring artificial intelligence into ADNOC’s energy operations. The agreement makes ADNOC the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier, a platform that lets businesses build and manage their own AI agents.
ADNOC will use the technology to analyse decades of collected data to prepare and optimise field master plans, while continuously forecasting crude oil supply, demand, prices and margins. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.
The agreement was signed at the ADIPEC oil conference in Abu Dhabi. Speaking at the event, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said energy was one of the company’s biggest challenges, noting that when it comes to powering AI, ‘atoms are still atoms’.
The deal deepens OpenAI’s ties with the UAE, where it is one of the partners in the first phase of a 5-gigawatt data centre project and is seeking investment from Abu Dhabi fund MGX. This partnership comes at an especially tumultuous time for the energy industry, as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz challenges Gulf exporters and big energy firms from the US cancelled their executive trips to the conference over security concerns. The partnership comes at an especially tumultuous time for the energy industry, as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has threatened Gulf exports. Several US energy executives also cancelled their trips to the Abu Dhabi conference citing security concerns.
References:
[Cover Image] Rickmaj. (2020, March 11). The Ruwais Refinery [Photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ADNOC_Refining_Ruwais_Site-187.jpg
AFP. (2026, November 2). UAE state oil company announces OpenAI partnership. Dawn. https://www.dawn.com/news/2041606
El Dahan, M., Kelly, S., & Maccioni, F. (2026, November 2). Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC, G42 sign deal with OpenAI as Sam Altman travels to UAE. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/abu-dhabis-adnoc-g42-sign-deal-with-openai-sam-altman-travels-uae-2026-11-02/
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