Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is increasing its drilling rig count over two years as it expands its oil production to hit its target for 2017, according to the chief executive officer (CEO) of Adnoc subsidiary Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco).

“The rig count will increase from 40 to 80 in the current two years, so it is coming very fast,” said Ali al-Jarwan, speaking at MEED’s Abu Dhabi 2013 conference on 9 December. “Because we are developing new fields, we have to drill more wells [and] eventually we should have 88 rigs by 2018.”

Abu Dhabi is aiming to increase its oil production capacity to 3.5 million barrels a day (b/d) by 2017, up from the current 2.8 million b/d, through a combination of offshore and onshore developments.

Al-Jarwan said Adnoc subsidiaries awarded $10bn in projects in 2013, including $6bn on the development of offshore fields.

He said the company is increasing the amount of equipment produced by local suppliers, with 73 per cent of procurement done in the Abu Dhabi market in 2012, totaling AED16.6bn ($4.5bn).

The company has also significantly reduced the amount of gas flared by its operations.

“[Part of] our contribution to the environment is to reduce gas flaring to zero,” said Al-Jarwan. “We are now utilising 98 per cent of the gas we produce and in refineries we have 100 per cent efficiency.”

“Adnoc is trying to be in the top 10 oil and gas companies worldwide in terms of volume and efficiency, so we emphasise operational excellence in everything we do,” he added.

Adma-Opco is a joint venture of Adnoc, the UK’s BP, France’s Total and Japan Oil Development Company (Jodco), operating an offshore oil field concession that expires in 2018. Al-Jarwan said he expects the process of forming a new joint venture to start in the next three years.