On October 12, 2026, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company of the United Arab Emirates signed a multi-year liquefied natural gas purchase and sale agreement with Gulf Energy Development Company of Thailand. According to the agreement, ADNOC Trading, a trading division under ADNOC, will supply approximately 2 million tons of LNG to Gulf Energy in Thailand starting from 2027. This is another cooperation between the two parties after the first LNG supply agreement in 2025, marking a further deepening of ADNOC's strategic layout in the Asian natural gas market. An energy link connecting Middle Eastern gas sources with Southeast Asian markets is accelerating from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok.

Implementation of the core content of the agreement

Nasser Muhai, CEO of ADNOC's Downstream Industries, Marketing, and Trade Agency, stated that the agreement is based on the first LNG supply agreement with Gulf Energy in Thailand, further strengthening ADNOC's commitment to providing reliable energy supply to Thai and Asian customers. He emphasized that this agreement is another milestone for ADNOC's global LNG marketing and trading platform, enhancing the scale, flexibility, and selectivity of the company's LNG solutions to meet the growing global demand. Sarat Ratanawardi, CEO of Gulf Energy Thailand, pointed out that the agreement reflects the company's strategic policy of building a diversified and resilient LNG portfolio, strengthening every link of the value chain by locking in midstream infrastructure, transportation capacity, and partnerships with leading suppliers, and planning to expand LNG trading business in Asia based on this portfolio.

ADNOC Global LNG Layout

The signing of this agreement is an important achievement after the official operation of ADNOC's global LNG marketing and trading platform. In July 2026, ADNOC officially launched the platform in the Abu Dhabi global market, integrating ADNOC Gas and XRG's marketing business with ADNOC Trading's trading capabilities into an integrated commercial hub. The goal of this platform is to achieve an annual saleable LNG production capacity of 47 million tons by 2035, and to become one of the world's leading LNG companies. On the supply side, ADNOC is vigorously promoting its rich gas development project, which covers three phases with a total investment of approximately 13.2 billion US dollars, of which the engineering, procurement, and construction contracts for the second and third phases amount to 8.2 billion US dollars. The third phase is planned to be completed by 2030, with an additional processing capacity of 23000 tons per day, equivalent to an annual output of approximately 8 million tons. These capacity expansions provide a solid resource guarantee for ADNOC to fulfill its long-term LNG supply commitments. Keywords: Middle East News Network, International Cooperation, Liquefied Natural Gas

Evolution of LNG Pattern in Asia

The signing of this agreement has a profound supply and demand background. The natural gas production in the Gulf of Thailand continues to decline, and the shortfall is increasingly supplemented by imported LNG year by year. As a leading power and infrastructure group in Thailand, Gulf Energy's business covers gas-fired power generation, renewable energy, and natural gas related activities. By locking in long-term LNG supply from the Middle East, Thai Gulf Energy can provide a stable fuel source for its power generation business, while enhancing its competitiveness in the Asian LNG trading market. The demand for LNG in Southeast Asia is expected to increase by over 20% year-on-year in 2026, driven mainly by data center expansion, economic growth, and a decline in domestic natural gas production. From a broader perspective, ADNOC's agreement is a continuation of its Look East strategy. Asia accounts for approximately 65% of global LNG demand, with China and India being the core growth engines. ADNOC is transforming from a traditional upstream producer to a comprehensive LNG supplier with global resource allocation capabilities by establishing a unified marketing and trade platform and expanding its portfolio of long-term supply agreements. The rapid upgrade of the partnership between the two parties, from the first cooperation in 2025 to the expansion of the agreement in 2026, reflects the strong demand for LNG resources in the Middle East in emerging Asian markets, as well as the strategic trend of Middle Eastern oil producing countries accelerating their transformation into the natural gas field.Editor/Gao Xue