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In common with other major energy companies, lower hydrocarbons prices have prompted authorities to carry out streamlining and efficiencies in Abu Dhabi’s energy sector. Against a backdrop of reorganisation and reform, production from the emirate’s oil and gas fields reached record levels in 2016. Currently, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company produces some 3m barrels of oil and 9.8bn standard cu feet per day of raw gas. Looking ahead, ADNOC’s strategy is to improve profitability and sustainability upstream while increasing value downstream. It also plans to triple the emirate’s output of petrochemicals by 2025. In the broader energy sphere, Abu Dhabi remains committed to making long-term investments in innovation and development of renewable energy and carbon capture technologies. This chapter contains an interview with Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State; and Group CEO, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

As the first emirate in the UAE to roll out mandatory health coverage, Abu Dhabi’s insurance sector has benefitted from over a decade of strong growth in both the life and general lines, with the UAE home to the region’s largest and most mature insurance market. Still, 2015 was a difficult year for the industry, as underwriters struggled with prevailing low global oil prices, increasing market competition, and sweeping regulatory reforms requiring many to realign internal process and restructure operations to meet rising national standards. Although the sector returned to profitability in 2016, strong competition continues to weigh on loss and retention ratios. Insurers are set to remain profitable in 2017, as mandatory health schemes continue to expand, while technical capacity and underwriting performance should continue to improve under the recent reforms’ rolling deadlines.

Abu Dhabi’s sharia-compliant finance sector, traditionally led by its Islamic banking industry, has expanded to include an increasing array of activities in areas such as insurance offerings and asset management. An environment of low oil prices has put pressure on margins in 2016 but, with nearly a quarter of assets in the UAE held by sharia-compliant institutions, the industry is firmly entrenched and well positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities as they arise. This chapter contains an interview with Tirad Al Mahmoud, CEO, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.

Despite the headwinds of low oil prices and recent regional political turbulence, Abu Dhabi’s stock exchange put in a relatively strong performance in 2016, with the main index posting a 5% gain for the year. A sizeable sovereign bond sale also injected life into the emirate’s nascent debt market, reviving a yield curve that had been interrupted by a seven-year absence of sovereign issuances. The emergence of Abu Dhabi’s new financial free zone, meanwhile, has opened up a range of possibilities for the future expansion of the emirate’s capital markets, both in terms of financial support services and core investment and trading activity.

Despite undergoing a profitability squeeze in 2016, Abu Dhabi’s banking sector nonetheless demonstrated its ability to expand its asset base during a period of difficult economic conditions. A recovery in deposit growth means that liquidity concerns have abated, while the stabilisation of oil prices and continued expansion of the non-oil economy brought cheer at the outset of 2017. The sector also appears to be on the brink of a long-anticipated phase of consolidation, in which a number of its biggest names are contemplating joining forces and reshaping the local market. This chapter contains an interview with Khalifa Mohammed Al Kindi, Chairman, Central Bank of the UAE.

Abu Dhabi has long been associated with buy-side investment activity, thanks largely to its success in transforming fiscal surpluses into global investments aimed at ensuring future economic security. However, after two full years of lower oil prices, Abu Dhabi’s attractiveness as a destination for inward investment has become more pertinent, with the government seeing boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows as a useful means of mitigating its spending cuts. The same pressures highlight the importance of diversifying the emirate’s export basket, which is dominated by oil and related products. The UAE’s strong performance in indexes such as the World Economic Forum’s “Global Enabling Trade Report” illustrates Abu Dhabi’s capacity to boost its non-oil export activity, and realising this potential is now a strategic imperative. This chapter contains interviews with Mohamed Thani Murshed Al Rumaithi, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Ahmed Al Sayegh, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Global Market.