Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced on May 13 plans to invest almost $50 billion over five years to develop its downstream business, Reuters reported.

ADNOC will add a third refinery at its Ruwais complex, expanding its capacity to 600,000 barrels per day (b/d) by 2025. The NOC plans to double its refining capacity and triple its annual petrochemicals output potential to 14.4 million tonnes by 2025, according to Reuters.

ADNOC chief executive Sultan al-Jaber stated that ADNOC will need to create new joint ventures and partnerships to reach that goal, instead of relying on existing assets.

“We continue to keep upstream as an integral part of our DNA at ADNOC while complementing that with a real shift in our drive for more downstream investments,” al-Jaber continued.

“ADNOC needs to shift its focus to… downstream in a way to help enhance our commerciality, increase our profitability and maximize value from every barrel we produce,” he said at ADNOC’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

Current ADNOC production rates stand at roughly 3 mb/d with a refining capacity of 922,000 b/d.

“The centerpiece when it comes to our downstream strategy is the Ruwais Industrial Complex… Our aim here is to make it become the single largest integrated refining and petrochemicals complex in the world,” al-Jaber said.

ADNOC plans to spend a total of more than $109 billion in all sectors including natural gas and downstream operations over the next five years, the company stated in November 2017.

As a part of the expansion ADNOC is evaluating some potential downstream opportunities in other markets including India, China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan. However, al-Jabar added that the company had not yet made a decision.