Hail and Ghasha Sour Gas Development: Owner, Capacity and Timeline

Last updated: November 11, 2026

Hail and Ghasha is Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (ADNOC) flagship sour gas development within the offshore Ghasha concession, sanctioned via final investment decision (FID) in October 2023 alongside roughly $16.94 billion in EPC contract awards. Designed to be developed with net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, the project is one of the largest offshore sour-gas developments in the world and is central to the United Arab Emirates’ drive for domestic gas self-sufficiency.

Overview

Ownership and Partners

ADNOC operates the Ghasha concession and holds the majority interest. As of late 2026, the remaining interests are split among four international partners: Italy’s Eni and Thailand’s PTTEP each hold an indirect 10% stake through a jointly owned vehicle, Seela Energies B.V., formed in October 2026 when the two companies folded their separate direct stakes into a single 50/50-owned company; Austria’s OMV and Russia’s Lukoil each hold a direct 5% stake. The consolidation into Seela Energies did not change either company’s underlying economic interest — it combined two existing 10% stakes into one shared holding structure, which the partners said would ease financing and operational coordination. PTTEP itself entered the concession in June 2024 by acquiring the 10% stake that Germany’s Wintershall Dea was exiting. See TDE’s coverage of the PTTEP and Eni Seela Energies joint venture for the full restructuring.

Owner, operator and offtaker roles should not be conflated here: ADNOC is both the concession’s operator and its majority owner; Eni, PTTEP, OMV and Lukoil are minority working-interest partners with no operating role; NPCC, Saipem and Tecnimont are EPC contractors with no equity stake in the concession; and the gas produced is sold domestically rather than under a dedicated export offtake contract.

Scope, Technology and EPC Contracts

Hail and Ghasha is designed around artificial islands built in shallow Gulf waters rather than fixed offshore platforms — a construction approach ADNOC has used elsewhere in the Ghasha concession to limit environmental disturbance to the surrounding marine habitat. The EPC contracts awarded alongside FID in October 2023 split the project into two main packages:

• Offshore package (~$8.2 billion): Awarded to a consortium of NPCC and Saipem S.p.A. (Saipem’s reported share: ~$4.1 billion). Scope covers four drilling centers and one processing plant built on artificial islands, plus more than 300 kilometers of subsea pipelines connecting the fields to onshore processing.
• Onshore package (~$8.74 billion): Awarded to Tecnimont S.p.A., part of Italy’s MAIRE Group. Scope covers two gas processing units, three sulfur recovery sections, associated utilities and offsite infrastructure, and export pipelines; completion is scheduled for 2028.

Earlier preparatory drilling work was covered separately: ADNOC Drilling was awarded contracts worth approximately $2 billion in 2022 tied to the broader Ghasha concession drilling campaign, ahead of the 2023 FID on the main development.

ADNOC has designed the project to operate with net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. Planned features include capture of roughly 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year — captured offshore, transported onshore and stored underground — low-carbon hydrogen displacing fuel gas in plant operations, and grid power drawn from the UAE’s nuclear (Barakah) and solar generation rather than on-site gas-fired power. ADNOC has said the capture volume would lift its group-wide committed carbon capture capacity to nearly 4 million tonnes per year once operational.

Financing

In December 2025, ADNOC signed a non-recourse structured financing agreement of up to $11 billion (Dh40.4 billion) with partners Eni and PTTEP, drawing on a syndicate of more than 20 international and regional banks. The facility is ring-fenced around Hail and Ghasha’s future midstream gas-processing assets and is designed to let ADNOC monetize the project’s forecast output while retaining operational and strategic control of the infrastructure. ADNOC has used similar structured and infrastructure-backed financing elsewhere in its portfolio, including earlier multi-billion-dollar pipeline partnerships, as part of a broader strategy of bringing in external capital and international partners to share the cost of its gas buildout — a pattern also visible in Ruwais LNG and the Ruwais Diyab Unconventional Gas Development.

Timeline

Why It Matters

Hail and Ghasha is one of the clearest examples of ADNOC using international equity partners and project-level financing to fund a capital-intensive sour gas megaproject while keeping operational control. It sits alongside Ruwais LNG and the Ruwais Diyab Unconventional Gas Development as one of three major pillars of ADNOC’s current gas-supply buildout, all aimed at supporting UAE gas self-sufficiency and, longer term, export growth. For EPC contractors and project financiers, it is also one of the larger active offshore sour-gas EPC programs globally, split between NPCC/Saipem offshore and Tecnimont onshore.

Recent News

See TDE’s coverage of the PTTEP and Eni Seela Energies joint venture (October 2026) for the most recent ownership-structure change at Ghasha, and TDE’s ADNOC company profile for the operator’s wider project portfolio.

Related Entities

• ADNOC — operator and majority holder of the Ghasha concession
• Eni — 10% partner, held via Seela Energies B.V.
• Claudio Descalzi — Eni’s CEO
• PTTEP and Eni Seela Energies joint venture — the October 2026 restructuring of the Eni/PTTEP Ghasha stakes
• Ruwais LNG — sister ADNOC gas megaproject under construction at Al Ruwais
• Ruwais Diyab Unconventional Gas Development — ADNOC’s first large-scale unconventional gas project

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Hail and Ghasha project?

Hail and Ghasha is ADNOC’s sour (sulfur-rich) gas development in the offshore Ghasha concession near Abu Dhabi, sanctioned via FID in October 2023. It is designed to produce more than 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day with net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, using artificial islands rather than conventional offshore platforms.

Who owns the Ghasha concession?

ADNOC operates the concession and holds the majority interest. The remaining interests are held by Eni (10%, via Seela Energies B.V.), PTTEP (10%, via Seela Energies B.V.), OMV (5%) and Lukoil (5%).

How much is ADNOC investing in Hail and Ghasha?

ADNOC and partners awarded EPC contracts worth approximately $16.94 billion at FID in October 2023 — about $8.2 billion for the offshore package (NPCC/Saipem) and $8.74 billion for the onshore package (Tecnimont). No single official total-project-cost figure beyond these EPC awards has been disclosed. Separately, ADNOC secured up to $11 billion in structured midstream financing in December 2025.

When will Hail and Ghasha start producing gas?

Gas production is targeted from year-end 2029, with the onshore processing scope scheduled for completion in 2028.

What is Seela Energies?

Seela Energies B.V. is a joint venture formed in October 2026 by Eni and PTTEP, each holding 50%, that consolidates the two companies’ separate 10% stakes in the Ghasha concession into a single shared holding vehicle. It did not change either company’s underlying economic interest in the project.

Sources

• ADNOC — Official FID press release (October 2023)
• Oil & Gas Journal — ADNOC takes FID, awards EPC contracts for Abu Dhabi sour gas megaproject
• Offshore Technology — ADNOC’s $11 billion Hail and Ghasha financing
• The Daily Energy — PTTEP and Eni Fold Ghasha Stakes Into New JV, Seela Energies
• MEED — ADNOC awards $17bn EPC contracts for Hail and Ghasha

Illustrative image. Photo: GuavaTrain, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons — source