Opening in Abu Dhabi
ADIPEC 2026 opened in Abu Dhabi on 2 November and runs until 5 November, hosted by ADNOC and organised by dmg events. The event is held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. Organisers expect 239,000 participants from more than 170 countries, according to dmg events.
Al Jaber sets out five steps
In the opening keynote, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC managing director and group CEO, said the industry must rethink how it builds, protects and delivers secure energy, following what he described as a year of disruption that exposed vulnerabilities in international supply chains. He said nearly one billion barrels of crude had been drawn from inventories since the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. He set out five priorities: expanded strategic storage and flexible refining capacity closer to consumer markets; logistics and infrastructure built before they are needed; intelligent systems that anticipate risk and lower the cost of each barrel; policy, finance and insurance that keep investment and trade moving; and people.
Altman on AI and energy
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman spoke and was interviewed at the ceremony. He said AI can help make energy systems more efficient, reliable and innovative, while its rapid expansion will require significantly more energy. He said the technology is increasingly used as a platform for scientific discovery and problem-solving as well as a productivity tool. He described the UAE as forward-looking on AI adoption and called the ADNOC-G42-OpenAI partnership a model for applying advanced AI to industrial challenges.
Exhibition and conference
The exhibition opened with 2,260 exhibitors across 16 halls and 30 country pavilions, with organisers describing Asian participation as the strongest in the event's history; China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are among the pavilion countries. Four specialised zones cover AI and digitalisation, low carbon, chemicals, and maritime and logistics. More than 1,800 speakers are scheduled across 380-plus sessions in 13 conference programmes, including a ministerial panel featuring Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, and Ekperikpe Ekpo, Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas).
