Abu Dhabi has set up a new upstream oil company named Al-Yasat Company for Petroleum Operations to explore and develop oil fields in the emirate.

The new entity is a joint venture between state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), which holds a 60 per cent stake, and China’s CNPC International Hong Kong, with the remaining 40 per cent.

“The company will carry out the development of onshore and offshore areas in Abu Dhabi as approved by the Supreme Petroleum Council [SPC],” the official Emirates News Agency (Wam) reported.

Al-Yasat’s roles will include exploration, drilling and maintenance of wells for the extraction of crude from reservoirs, as well as the construction, operation and maintenance of production facilities, conversion, processing, measurement, storage, transfer and delivery of oil from production wells to delivery points.

The company will also market crude domestically or export it overseas. It is unclear which areas of Abu Dhabi will fall under the concession.

In recent years, Adnoc has signed several joint ventures on smaller fields lying outside its major offshore and onshore oil concessions.

In March 2012, the state energy firm signed a 30-year deal with South Korea’s state-run Korea National Oil Company (KNOC) and GS Energy to explore and develop two offshore blocks and one onshore block. The Korean partners took a 40 per cent stake in the joint venture.