The UAE’s state-owned energy company, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has signed a multi-year partnership with U.S.-based OpenAI and UAE technology company G42 to deploy advanced artificial intelligence across its operations, becoming the first energy company to use OpenAI’s platform to coordinate AI agents across complex business processes.OpenAI, founded in 2015, is a leading AI research and technology company best known for developing ChatGPT.

The agreement was signed at Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) and witnessed by Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.

ADIPEC is one of the world’s major energy industry events, held annually in Abu Dhabi, UAE. It brings together energy companies, industry leaders, policymakers, and technology providers to discuss developments, investment opportunities, and innovations across the global energy sector.

The partnership will initially focus on two applications. The first will improve field development planning by bringing together data from thousands of wells, multiple reservoirs, surface facilities, investment costs, and commercial requirements. Using ADNOC’s existing ENERGYai platform alongside OpenAI’s advanced models, the system will help develop and optimize plans for entire fields rather than assessing individual reservoirs and facilities separately.

The second application will connect data across ADNOC’s operations, from production and processing to refining, transportation, sales, and trading. AI agents will forecast oil supply, demand, prices, and profit margins, helping the company assess the impact of commercial and operational decisions and maximize the value of every barrel while it remains underground.

The partners will jointly develop these solutions through OpenAI Frontier, combining OpenAI’s AI models with ADNOC’s industrial data and expertise. The technology will run on G42’s sovereign AI infrastructure in the UAE, with human experts overseeing important decisions.

The partnership will also establish a shared knowledge base to preserve industrial expertise and support future AI applications across ADNOC. In addition, it will strengthen the company’s cybersecurity through OpenAI’s Daybreak Blue initiative, helping identify security weaknesses and protect critical energy infrastructure.

All solutions will operate under ADNOC’s supervision to protect its proprietary data and critical infrastructure. The partners will also develop AI solutions together and train ADNOC employees to use and deploy the technology effectively.

ADNOC has been expanding its use of AI to improve operational efficiency and production. Its existing solutions include SMARTi for workplace safety, RoboWell for remote well operations, and AiPSO, developed with SLB and Cognite, to optimize production across its oil and gas fields.

ADNOC, one of the largest energy company, is operating across the oil and gas value chain, including exploration, production, refining, and distribution.