The onshore division of United Arab Emirates state-run oil company Adnoc expects to boost onshore crude capacity to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2017, a top official said on Monday.   

Adco plans to develop its marginal fields to help achieve this target, the division's general manager, Abdul Munim Al-Kindy, told reporters.

'We have about 10 to 12 of such fields in our portfolio of underdeveloped fields,' Al-Kindy said.   

The unit will bring online first production of 225,000 bpd from this capacity boost in 2012, with the remaining 175,000 bpd set to come online by 2017, he said.

Adco's current capacity was at 1.4 million bpd, and it was currently producing 4.5 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas, he said.

The growth in onshore operations is part of a larger plan by the UAE to boost total crude production capacity to around 3.5 million bpd in 2018 from around 2.8 million bpd.   

The UAE, the world's third-largest oil exporter, plans to boost gas output from its offshore fields by 1 billion cfd by 2013. The UAE holds the world's fifth-largest gas reserves, but has failed to keep up with rising domestic demand from power plants and industry.    

UAE depends on gas imports from Qatar to fire power stations and meet the needs of industry.

As part of measures to boost output, Adnoc plans to connect offshore gas production with its online grid, and the first stage of that process would be completed in the first-quarter 2010, he said.   

The second stage would start in 2013, he added. Together the two stages would bring 1 billion cfd onshore that would mostly supply the national grid, he added.   

The state firm expected to see first production from a joint venture with ConocoPhillips at the Shah sour gas field by late 2013 or early 2014. - Reuters