(WO) – The energy industry must rethink how it builds, protects and delivers supply after a year of disruption that exposed critical weaknesses in global supply chains, ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO Sultan Al Jaber said Nov. 2 in his opening address at ADIPEC 2026 in Abu Dhabi.
Al Jaber said that since the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, nearly 1 billion bbl of crude have been drained from global inventories. In some markets, diesel stocks are at their lowest seasonal level in 35 years, and others face a 600-Bcf LNG supply gap. “Simply put, the world has eroded its supply buffers,” he said. “But supply is only half the story. The other half is delivery. Before the disruption, logistics were less than five per cent of the cost of a barrel. Today, they are more than 30 per cent.”
Al Jaber laid out five priorities for a more resilient energy system. The first is accessible supply, through expanded strategic storage, larger product stockpiles and flexible refining capacity closer to consumers. The second is secure routes to market, with infrastructure built before it is needed. The third is operational intelligence, moving from automated operations to systems that anticipate risk and lower the cost of each barrel. The fourth is policy, finance and insurance that give capital the confidence to keep trade moving. The fifth, and in his view the most important, is people. “Systems don’t carry responsibility, people do,” he said.
As an example of the partnerships needed, Al Jaber pointed to a new agreement among ADNOC, OpenAI and G42, announced the same morning. He said the partnership will transform ADNOC’s field development, well management and commercial operations, and that it will make ADNOC the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended the opening session. “From the moment ChatGPT was born, the world has asked what energy can do for AI,” Al Jaber said. “And now, together, we will find out what AI can do for energy.”
Al Jaber also credited the UAE’s armed forces, civil defense, first responders and ADNOC frontline teams for keeping operations running through the disruption. “The choices we make today will determine the energy landscape a decade from now,” he said. “Let’s build capacity and everything that supports it. Let’s forge partnerships that hold when it matters.”
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