ADNOC signs pact with G42 and OpenAI to deploy frontier AI technology

Abu Dhabi's national oil company says it is the first energy firm to deploy OpenAI's frontier technology, deepening the UAE's push to pair oil with AI The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has signed a partnership with G42 and OpenAI. Under the deal, ADNOC becomes the first energy company to deploy OpenAI’s frontier technology. ADNOC announced the agreement on November 2, 2026. It positions one of the world’s best-known energy producers at the front of a race most oil companies are still watching from the sidelines. What the deal covers The partnership gives ADNOC access to OpenAI’s most advanced models, deployed through G42, the Abu Dhabi-based AI group. That includes agentic AI. Agentic AI is the term for systems that do more than answer questions. They can work through multi-step tasks with less hand-holding, closer to a junior analyst than a search box. ADNOC plans to point this technology at its upstream operations first. Upstream is the industry’s word for finding and pulling oil and gas out of the earth, before any refining or selling happens. The deal extends AI work ADNOC already has underway, rather than starting from a blank page. That existing work is substantial. ADNOC pr...