Adnoc offers $16.3 billion in UAE manufacturing opportunities, revises supplier rules

New bidding and registration rules

Adnoc announced the opportunities and procurement changes on October 25 at its second Make it with Adnoc Forum in Abu Dhabi. The reforms target several stages of contracting: the company aims to reduce purchasing cycles by as much as 40%, cut required documentation in half and eliminate prequalification for 60% of service categories.

Beginning November 1, bids will receive a combined assessment in which commercial terms account for 70% of the score and in-country value, or ICV, accounts for 30%. This replaces Adnoc's bid-matching system and is intended to encourage suppliers to make their most competitive offers at the start.

Salama Alawadhi, Adnoc's senior vice president for group commercial, ICV and industrial development, said contracts worth less than AED 2 million will not be subject to ICV requirements. Contracts below AED 50 million will be freed from ICV retention obligations.

Registration can now take as little as a day rather than weeks, Alawadhi said. Adnoc also plans to use artificial intelligence to check documents on a consolidated supplier platform.

The forum precedes ADIPEC 2026, scheduled for November 2-5 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi. The conference will be held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Local production across more than 200 products

The manufacturing offer covers more than 200 essential products and critical spare parts. Adnoc is seeking UAE production of items such as electrical submersible pumps, oil country tubular goods, seamless pipes and compressors. The broader categories include drilling equipment, electrical and automation systems, chemicals, catalysts, piping and heavy machinery.

By sourcing more of those goods domestically, the company aims to shorten delivery times and limit its exposure to disruptions in global supply chains. Omar Alnuaimi, Adnoc's group chief for commercial and ICV, said recent energy supply-chain disruptions had highlighted the need for domestic manufacturing.

"We are inviting companies to build capabilities in the UAE that will serve our industry and country for years to come," said Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Adnoc's managing director and group chief executive and the UAE's Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology.

Alnuaimi said the offer extends beyond individual products: "These are not 200 products only. These are opportunities, partnerships, industries, and a whole value chain."

According to Alnuaimi, Adnoc has reached AED 80 billion toward its AED 90 billion local manufacturing target for 2030. That work has helped bring production of more than 130 products to the UAE and supported the creation or expansion of 95 factories.

Demand commitments and financing

The October announcements build on measures introduced at the inaugural forum in May 2026, when Adnoc outlined AED 200 billion ($55 billion) in planned upstream and downstream project awards for 2026-2028.

Adnoc also launched its five-part Industrial Resilience Program in May. It combines an enhanced ICV model with Local+, which requires engineering, procurement and construction contractors to prioritize Made in the Emirates products. The other components are an ICV+ credit top-up for local purchases, the ADNOC Multiplier tool to increase locally produced content, and Build-to-Demand, which offers long-term demand visibility and commitments for local production.

Local+ now includes more than 100 UAE manufacturers, compared with 70 when it began in May. Contractors bidding for new projects must obtain eligible products from approved local suppliers.

To help manufacturers find investment opportunities and financing, Adnoc is working with the ministry, Abu Dhabi Investment Office and other partners through the National Industrial Resilience Fund. Established by the UAE Cabinet with AED 1 billion in capital, the fund is managed by Emirates Development Bank over five years and focuses on expanding capacity at existing facilities through brownfield investment.

Adnoc became the fund's first partner in May 2026 through a three-party memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology and Emirates Development Bank.

Mazen Shehada, director of business development at Abu Dhabi Oilfield Services Company, said the procurement changes would improve manufacturers' access to Adnoc contracts and give them more certainty about future demand. His company attended the May forum and has doubled its UAE manufacturing capacity since the ICV program began eight years ago. It now exports from Abu Dhabi to markets around the world.

"With their offtake agreements, they're giving us a commitment to enable us to invest more and be able to be confident in our investments," Shehada told The National.

ICV spending and the national policy

Adnoc's ICV program has directed more than AED 307 billion into the UAE economy since 2018. Its annual contribution rose from AED 18 billion in its first year to AED 65 billion in 2025.

The company says the program is set to channel another AED 220 billion into the economy over the next five years. It also reports signing AED 80 billion in local manufacturing agreements since 2022, while its partners have invested AED 4.5 billion in UAE factories and advanced manufacturing capabilities.

At the national level, the ICV program has redirected more than AED 473 billion into the economy, including AED 126 billion last year, and created 28,000 jobs for Emiratis, Osama Amir Fadhel told the forum. He is assistant undersecretary for industrial accelerators at the Ministry of Industry and Technology.

In April 2026, the UAE Cabinet approved changes making the National In-Country Value Programme mandatory, rather than incentive-based, across selected sectors, including federal entities and companies in which the government owns at least 25%. It also set a goal of fully localizing more than 5,000 critical products.

Fadhel told The National that Adnoc's procurement changes could reach smaller businesses supplying major contractors. He said the 30% local-content weighting would have a "ripple effect" across the energy sector and could provide a model for other large buyers.

"Zero bureaucracy is in our DNA today," Fadhel said, describing the spread of government service automation efforts to private and state-linked businesses.