Abu Dhabi’s Europe M&A hedges an opaque future

OCI

26/01/2024 06:25

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are her own.)
    By Karen Kwok
       LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The UAE’s key
oil group is readying $40 bln of European petrochemicals deals.
Some Western rivals are doubling down on the black stuff.
ADNOC’s plan – buying up the value chain of an area where crude
demand may persist – is a partial hedge against cratered oil
usage in 2050.
    Full view will be published shortly.
    Follow @karenkkwok on X
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
    The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Austria’s OMV
are poised to resume talks to agree final terms of a tie-up that
would create a chemicals group with more than $20 billion in
combined annual sales, Reuters reported on Jan. 22, citing
sources close to the deal.
    Three people with knowledge of the situation said there are
still outstanding terms to agree on, with two of them saying
that the companies planned to resume talks possibly as soon as
this week.
    At the ADNOC board of directors’ annual meeting on Jan. 22,
the company committed to increase its spending on
decarbonisation and lower-carbon projects to $23 billion, from
$15 billion previously.

 (Editing by George Hay and Oliver Taslic)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
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karen.kwok@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
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