Abu Dhabi Funds Invest $2.1 Billion in ADNOC Gas Pipelines

 Abu Dhabi Funds Invest $2.1 Billion in ADNOC Gas Pipelines
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Abu Dhabi Funds Invest $2.1 Billion in ADNOC Gas Pipelines

 Abu Dhabi Funds Invest $2.1 Billion in ADNOC Gas Pipelines

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ADNOC, announced today that Abu Dhabi Pension Fund, ADPF, and ADQ, one of the region’s largest holding companies, will invest AED7.7 billion (US$2.1 billion) into ADNOC gas pipeline infrastructure assets.

Under the terms of the agreement, ADNOC will divest 20% in ADNOC Gas Pipelines HoldCo LLC, a wholly owned ADNOC entity that holds 100% of ADNOC’s interest in ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets LLC (ADNOC Gas Pipelines), to ADPF and ADQ.

ADNOC Gas Pipelines is a subsidiary of ADNOC with lease rights to 38 gas pipelines covering a total of 982 kilometers.

In July 2020, a consortium of global investors, comprising Global Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, NH Investment & Securities and Snam (the Consortium), invested $10.1 billion for a collective 49% stake in the same select ADNOC gas pipeline infrastructure assets, state news agency WAM reported.

For his part, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Group CEO welcomed the partnership with both Abu Dhabi Pension Fund and ADQ.

"Joining our global investor consortium partners in this landmark energy infrastructure investment, the addition of these high-caliber UAE investors sets a new benchmark for leading global and domestic institutional investors to deploy long-term equity capital into key ADNOC energy infrastructure assets," said Sultan Al Jaber.

Also, Khalaf Abdullah Rahma Al Hammadi, Director General of Abu Dhabi Pension Fund said: "The Fund is keen to implement the directives of the UAE’s wise leadership and achieve the Abu Dhabi government's vision aimed at building strong partnerships between major national institutions to support the national economy and achieve the highest possible benefits."

Since announcing the expansion of its partnership and investment model and the more proactive value management of its assets and capital in 2017, ADNOC has entered the debt capital markets for the first time, issuing a $3 billion bond backed by the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline.

ADNOC also recently closed innovative investment partnerships with leading global institutional investors and operators in both its oil and gas pipelines and non-oil and gas strategic infrastructure.



South Korea's Hanwha Ocean Targets US Navy Orders as Trump Seeks Shipbuilding Ties

Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025.   REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
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South Korea's Hanwha Ocean Targets US Navy Orders as Trump Seeks Shipbuilding Ties

Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025.   REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean aims to boost its revenue from overseas military vessels to around 4 trillion won ($2.91 billion) by 2030 and hopes to pick up more repair orders from the US Navy, a senior executive told Reuters.

The Asian country is a major global shipbuilder and trade talks with the US on tariffs brought up possible cooperation in the sector after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to restore US shipbuilding.

Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding, is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world with an order book of $31.43 billion as of the end of March. It acquired a US shipyard in Philadelphia last year to expand in the market.

Its naval ships business, which has built dozens of submarines and surface vessels used by the South Korean Navy, has won two orders from the US Navy since last year to repair and overhaul its ships for the first time.

"I think we may be the biggest shipyard in the world that has taken on these maintenance, repair and overhaul orders from the US Navy," said Steve SK Jeong, head of the Naval Ship Global Business at Hanwha Ocean, days after US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan visited its shipyard.

"It is not very profitable, but learning the process of working with the US Navy is valuable, which will help if we win newbuild orders."

Hanwha Ocean hoped to win a double-digit number of US Navy maintenance and repair orders before 2030, Jeong said.

Trump has vowed to spend "a lot of money on shipbuilding" to restore US capacity, and cited concern over how his country has fallen behind in an industry that is also dominated by China.

Still, US laws can make it harder for foreign shipyards even if they have US operations. They are prohibited from building US Navy vessels, due to the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment of the US Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

TRANSPLANTING PROCESSES

Hanwha Ocean's Philadelphia Shipyard is trying to get a license that clears it to build US Navy vessels, but transplanting cutting-edge manufacturing processes honed from competition with other South Korean and Chinese shipyards is not as simple as bringing in some automated welding machines, Jeong said.

"I think the US shipbuilding industry hasn't had to compete very much. Facilities are old, and there's a shortage of technicians," Jeong said.

"We are looking to modernize facilities, train and equip workers, and bring in our manufacturing process that can build the same ship in, I think, two-thirds the time or less as that of a US shipyard."

Jeong said the company is investing in South Korea to use existing facilities and expand naval ship capacity to build five submarines and three surface vessels at the same time by 2029, from two submarines and two surface vessels now.

Despite building 17 submarines for the South Korean Navy since 1987, Hanwha Ocean has only actively competed for overseas orders in the last few years as South Korea's low birthrate and shrinking military-age population risk cooling local demand.

It is competing to export submarines to Poland and Canada, a frigate to Thailand as well as knocking on the door in markets in the Middle East, South America, North Africa and Southeast Asia, to build up a sustained flow of orders that would bring foreign sales to 4 trillion won by 2030, Jeong said.

That would be about four times the size of its 1.05 trillion won of revenue in 2024.