History of Oil in UAE

Considered as one of the wealthiest countries in the world and among the most oil rich destinations in the Middle East, UAE’s meteoric development from small pearl and fishing village to modern metropolis is credited to the discovery of ‘black gold’ just a few decades ago in 1950 on the North-East coast of Abu-Dhabi at the site of ‘Ras Sadr-1’. 

In 1939 concession was awarded to Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Ltd.; however geological work did not begin until after the Second World War. In 1947 geological exploration began and in 1950 exploratory drilling began in Abu Dhabi. 

In 1958, ADMA became the first company to discover oil in commercial quantities at Umm Shaif (close to Das Island). A production and processing centre and an oil export terminal were built on the island. Crude began to be shipped from Das Island in 1962 – the year when Abu Dhabi joined the family of oil exporters and the rapid transformation of the emirate began. The first commercial onshore oil discovery was made at Bab in 1960, and exports began from the Jebel Dhanna terminal on December 14th, 1963. Subsequently, oil was also found in Dubai and the exports began in 1969. 

By far the biggest deposits of oil in the Emirates have been found in Abu Dhabi. The emirate controls more than 85 per cent of the UAE’s oil output capacity and more than 90 per cent of its reserves. UAE possesses nearly 10% of the world’s total reserves.

The federation of the United Arab Emirates was formed on 2 December 1971. Undoubtedly, oil and the federation were the two most important factors in the transformation of the seven emirates politically, economically, socially and culturally, from a collection of subsistence desert sheikhdoms into a federated group of modern city-states.