ADNOC has become the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier, after signing a multi-year partnership with OpenAI and G42 on Monday 2 November at ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi, according to ADNOC. G42 signed through its subsidiary Inception42, and His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, witnessed the signing, WAM reported.
OpenAI Frontier is OpenAI’s platform for connecting and coordinating AI agents across complex business operations. OpenAI’s GPT models will run on G42’s AI infrastructure inside the UAE, and human experts will keep oversight of major decisions. The value of the deal and its timeline were not disclosed.
Key points
- Multi-year deal between ADNOC, OpenAI and G42 (through Inception42)
- ADNOC is the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier
- GPT models run on G42 infrastructure inside the UAE
- First uses: field planning and valuing each barrel before extraction
- Deal value and timeline not disclosed
How ADNOC will use OpenAI Frontier
The first use is field planning. Subsurface, facilities and economic studies are usually done one after another. The new system will combine decades of data from thousands of wells, multiple reservoirs and hundreds of surface facilities into a single plan, which ADNOC says can be prepared “in hours rather than months”. It builds on ENERGYai, ADNOC’s own subsurface AI.
The second use is valuing each barrel while it is still in the ground. Connected AI agents will forecast crude supply, demand, prices and margins across production, processing, refining, logistics, sales and trading, so operational and commercial decisions are weighed together.
Cyber defence and staff training
The deal also covers cyber defence through OpenAI’s Daybreak Blue initiative, which helps security teams find vulnerabilities and protect critical energy infrastructure. ADNOC and OpenAI will co-develop AI tools and train ADNOC staff to use them.
| ADNOC and AI | Figure |
|---|---|
| Employees using ChatGPT Enterprise | More than 40,000 |
| ChatGPT Enterprise adoption | Above 97% |
| AI applications deployed or in development | More than 200 |
| Robotics use cases deployed or in development | 70 |
ADNOC calls its ChatGPT Enterprise rollout the largest in the Middle East and North Africa. If you work with AI in Arabic, see our guide to the AI chatbots that handle Arabic well.
“The next frontier of AI is not simply doing things faster. It is making possible what was previously beyond reach.”
Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO
One of four OpenAI deals in Abu Dhabi
The ADNOC partnership was one of four agreements with OpenAI that Sheikh Khaled witnessed after meeting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Abu Dhabi Media Office said. The others cover Abu Dhabi Government’s Machine-Readable Government initiative, an investment analysis deal between Mubadala, Inception42 and OpenAI, and a five-year Inception42 and OpenAI agreement for government, enterprise and education.
The government side follows the trend we covered in agentic AI in UAE government services. For more on OpenAI’s models, read about the public launch of GPT-5.6.
Sources: ADNOC statement (Zawya), WAM, Abu Dhabi Media Office
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