State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), which owns 100 percent of ADCOP, said the issue was mostly sold to investors in Europe and the United States.

The sale, described by ADNOC as the largest non-sovereign bond sale in the Middle East, was oversubscribed after receiving offers worth $11 billion, the company said in a statement.

The bonds issue consists of two tranches, $837 million for 12 years and $2.2 billion maturing after 30 years, the statement said.

ADCOP owns a 406-kilometre (252-mile) pipeline carrying over 600,000 barrels of crude oil from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah on the Arabian Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran partly controls and through which most Gulf oil exports pass.

Gulf states have been borrowing either directly or issuing bonds in their bid to plug budget deficits resulting from low oil prices.

Abu Dhabi last month raised $10 billion from a rare international bond sale, the second by the emirate, which has the Gulf's largest sovereign wealth fund, since oil prices slumped in mid-2014.