Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has signed a multi-year partnership with OpenAI and technology group G42 to introduce advanced artificial intelligence across its energy business, making it the first energy company in the world to deploy OpenAI’s frontier technology.

The agreement will connect AI systems across ADNOC’s operations, allowing the company to coordinate decisions covering oil production, processing, refining, logistics, sales and trading. The technology will operate using OpenAI’s GPT models and computing infrastructure based in the United Arab Emirates.

The partnership places advanced AI at the centre of ADNOC’s efforts to improve operational planning and commercial decision-making across its energy business. It also expands the UAE’s growing relationship with OpenAI as the country invests in artificial intelligence infrastructure and applications.

AI to connect thousands of wells and energy assets

One of the first applications will focus on field development planning, bringing together decades of operational information from thousands of wells, multiple reservoirs and hundreds of surface facilities.

ADNOC plans to use the technology to prepare and optimize complex field development plans in hours rather than months. The system will connect information that would otherwise require coordination across different assets and operational teams, giving decision-makers a broader view of development requirements.

Beyond field planning, interconnected AI agents will assess how operational decisions affect commercial performance across the company’s business. This includes evaluating the consequences of choices involving production, refining, transportation, sales and trading.

The arrangement is designed to connect technical and commercial information, helping ADNOC assess opportunities and the potential financial implications of decisions across its operations.

The new partnership will complement ENERGYai, ADNOC’s existing artificial intelligence platform for subsurface operations, as well as more than 200 AI applications already deployed across its business.

OpenAI expands its UAE partnerships

The agreement was signed at the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 2, 2026, in the presence of Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. ADNOC chief executive Sultan Al Jaber and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman attended the announcement.

Altman described the agreement as another step in OpenAI’s relationship with the UAE, highlighting energy as one of the major challenges facing the development and expansion of artificial intelligence.

The ADNOC partnership was among several agreements involving OpenAI and Abu Dhabi-based institutions announced during Altman’s visit. Separately, Mubadala, G42 subsidiary Inception42 and OpenAI agreed to apply advanced AI to investment analysis, identifying opportunities and assessing risks.

Inception42 also signed a five-year agreement with OpenAI to support the adoption of frontier AI across government, businesses and education in the UAE.

OpenAI is also involved in the UAE’s planned 5-gigawatt artificial intelligence data centre project, developed in partnership with American technology companies.

For ADNOC, the partnership represents an expansion of its existing technology investments into a connected AI system covering decisions from oilfield development to commercial markets. The companies have not disclosed the financial value of the agreement.