DAEGU: United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suheil al-Mazrouei said Monday the country was on track to achieve its goal of a one-third increase in oil production by 2017.
"We are confident and the projects are on time," Mazrouei told AFP at the ongoing World Energy Congress in Daegu, South Korea.
Back in April, the UAE said it wanted to hike its oil production capacity to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2017, from the then-level of 2.6 million bpd.
Current output is estimated at around 2.9 million bpd.
Some experts had questioned whether the target figure could be attained, especially given confusion surrounding UAE's biggest onshore oil concession, ADCO, which is up for renewal next year.
Abu Dhabi's state-owned oil firm ADNOC has a 60 percent share in the concession, with the rest held by five international oil companies.
ADCO accounts for more than half of UAE's oil production, and ADNOC expects to receive bids this month from companies hoping to run the concession for decades to come.
"There was a confusion mixing the bidding round on the onshore concession, with the offshore production," Mazrouei acknowledged.
"But those are signed projects and they are ongoing with several companies and we don't believe that they will be impacted by the bidding process on the onshore concession," he added.
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