ADNOC Drilling and Masdar agree to explore geothermal energy opportunities

ADNOC Drilling Company has signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Masdar to explore collaboration around development, investment, operations, and projects to responsibly advance the energy transition both in the UAE and globally.

Under the MoU, which reinforces ADNOC Drilling’s deep expertise in its sector, the Company will engage as a drilling technical expert and advisor to support Masdar’s deployment of geothermal energy around the world. The companies will jointly evaluate the potential for ADNOC Drilling to provide geothermal drilling services.

Abdulrahman Abdulla Al Seari, Chief Executive Officer, ADNOC Drilling, said: “Geothermal energy has enormous global potential and energy developers are challenged to ensure smart and innovative ways to deliver cost-effective wells. Our leading integrated drilling services offering can bring advanced, efficient start-to-finish drilling and completion technologies to enable Masdar the potential to generate clean geothermal energy to cool thousands of homes and office buildings.”

Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer, Masdar added: “This MoU with ADNOC Drilling further reinforces Masdar's commitment to unlocking clean energy opportunities across a wide range of technologies. With Masdar recently adding geothermal energy to our growing clean energy portfolio, we are excited about the important role that geothermal can play in helping to drive forward the global energy transition, and we look forward to working with ADNOC Drilling to realize that potential."

Geothermal energy harnesses the heat generated within the Earth’s core to provide a constant energy source, unlike solar or wind, which are intermittent in nature. Accessing geothermal energy can be extremely challenging, with studies conducted by Masdar demonstrating the need to deploy new drilling and completion technologies to drive cost efficiencies across the entire process.

Masdar entered the geothermal energy sector last month, with a strategic investment in Indonesia’s Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE), one of the world’s largest geothermal players. Masdar sees geothermal energy as potentially playing a significant role in the clean energy transition, helping nations with a high concentration of geothermal activity to reduce carbon emissions.