Adnoc toasts its resilience

Reforms in response to the last industry downturn have equipped Abu Dhabi’s oil heavyweight to cope with the current crisis

State-owned Adnoc has, according to chief executive Sultan al-Jaber, left behind its conservative past in a "transformation" over his four-year tenure that has positioned it to "better respond to changing market dynamics". His claims, made as he hosted Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan at the firm’s flagship Ruwais refinery in mid-June, are not ill-founded. The company is nimbler and better able to cope than it was during the 2014-16 price crash. But it has still had to adopt some of the tactics it employed during the previous downturn— paring contractor costs, deferring some larger capital projects and looking to novel means to financially leverage its asset base.  Smart