ADNOC has announced a multi-year partnership with OpenAI and G42 to accelerate the deployment of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) across its business operations, becoming the first energy company to use OpenAI’s Frontier platform to connect and coordinate AI agents across complex industrial processes.

Announced at ADIPEC, the partnership aims to integrate intelligence across ADNOC’s operational, capital and commercial activities, enabling more informed and coordinated decision-making across its energy value chain.

Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, witnessed the signing of the agreement.

The initiative builds on ADNOC’s existing AI capabilities, including ENERGYai, which provides intelligence across its reservoirs, assets and operations. OpenAI Frontier will connect these capabilities across the business, allowing different functions to work together rather than relying on separate processes and sequential decisions.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, said: “The next frontier of AI is not simply doing things faster. It is making possible what was previously beyond reach. Through this landmark partnership with OpenAI and G42, ADNOC is taking a major step towards connecting intelligence across our entire business, combining world-leading AI with decades of industrial expertise to make better decisions, unlock greater value and strengthen energy security.

“As the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier, we are demonstrating how frontier AI can move beyond individual applications to reshape the performance of an entire industry. This is industrial AI at scale, pioneered here in Abu Dhabi, and it will help define the future of energy.”

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said: “More capable AI can help us tackle some of the world’s hardest problems – particularly around energy. By combining frontier AI, sovereign infrastructure and industry expertise, this first-of-its-kind partnership will help ADNOC move faster, operate more efficiently and make better decisions across the energy value chain. Together, we’re shaping the future of AI-enabled energy.”

Mansoor Al Mansoori, CEO, G42 International, said: “You should not have to use AI to benefit from it. Some of the greatest value will come from improving the systems humanity depend on, and energy is fundamental to every economy. The UAE is building an AI native nation with a global purpose to export intelligence responsibly as we have long exported energy. Building on years of collaboration with ADNOC through AIQ, this partnership with OpenAI’s frontier capabilities will further that ambition to reality. What we build here should strengthen the energy system the world relies on, with benefits that reach people far beyond our borders.”

Two Initial AI Applications

The partnership will initially focus on two major applications designed to improve planning, operational efficiency and commercial decision-making.

The first will transform field master planning by bringing together subsurface, facilities and economic studies into a single integrated process. Using ENERGYai’s reservoir-level intelligence alongside OpenAI’s advanced reasoning models, the system will analyse decades of data covering thousands of wells, multiple stacked reservoirs and hundreds of surface facilities.

It will also incorporate capital requirements, costs and commercial considerations to develop and optimise full-field development master plans. Rather than assessing individual reservoirs and facilities separately, the technology will enable ADNOC to optimise development decisions across entire fields simultaneously, improving both the speed and scope of planning.

The second application will focus on valuing every barrel of crude oil while it remains underground, making ADNOC the first energy company globally to deploy the technology for this purpose.

The system will connect data and intelligence across the company's integrated value chain, covering production, processing, refining, logistics, sales and trading. These activities often operate through separate systems and rely on different data and priorities.

Through interconnected AI agents, the platform will continuously forecast crude oil supply, demand, prices and margins, while assessing the potential impact of market developments and operational decisions.

By bringing these processes together, ADNOC aims to provide decision-makers with actionable insights and improve the commercial value of every barrel it produces, processes and sells.

Sovereign AI Infrastructure and Workforce Development

Under the agreement, ADNOC, OpenAI and G42 will jointly develop and deploy a bespoke decision-intelligence capability using OpenAI Frontier. The platform will combine OpenAI’s latest frontier models with ADNOC’s proprietary industrial data and expertise, operating on G42’s sovereign AI infrastructure in the UAE.

Human experts will retain oversight of consequential decisions, while all solutions will operate within ADNOC’s governance and security frameworks to protect proprietary information and critical infrastructure.

Beyond the two initial applications, the partnership will establish a shared foundation of industrial knowledge, preserving institutional expertise and supporting the development of additional AI applications across ADNOC’s operations.

The collaboration will also strengthen the company's cybersecurity capabilities through OpenAI’s Daybreak Blue initiative, helping security teams identify vulnerabilities and protect critical energy infrastructure.

ADNOC and OpenAI will additionally co-develop advanced AI solutions and provide employees with the skills needed to deploy and use the technologies effectively.

The initiative builds on ADNOC’s existing adoption of ChatGPT Enterprise, which has been rolled out to more than 40,000 employees. The deployment represents the largest enterprise implementation of ChatGPT in the Middle East and North Africa, with adoption exceeding 97%.

The agreement represents the latest development in ADNOC’s broader AI and robotics strategy, which already includes more than 200 AI applications and 70 robotics use cases either deployed or under development.

Through its partnership with OpenAI and G42, ADNOC aims to extend the use of advanced AI beyond individual business applications, creating an integrated intelligence platform to support operational performance, commercial optimisation, energy security and the future development of the energy industry. -TradeArabia News Service