About

Operating across the entire hydrocarbon value chain, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is one of the world’s largest oil companies by production, and has played a key role in Abu Dhabi’s global emergence over its 46-year history. Chief legal counsel, Salem Mohammed Al Darei, has been at ADNOC since 2012 but took his current position in May 2016 after demonstrating his legal nous and value to the company as a divisional manager and acting director. In 2017 alone, Al Darei has been involved in several key strategic deals for ADNOC. One such deal worth $1.63bn saw ADNOC’s subsidiary, National Drilling Company (NDC), acquire nine state-of-the-art offshore rigs in April. A month later, ADNOC signed a Memorandum of Understanding in front of Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Austria’s Chancellor Christian Kern with Austrian oil and gas company OMV to explore potential opportunities to work together to support ADNOC’s downstream businesses and the company’s smart growth strategy. In the same month, Al Darei oversaw the conclusion of the company’s agreement with Penthol to be its exclusive seller of Group III base oil sales in the US. Al Darei also oversaw ADNOC’s agreement with Borealis ‘under which the companies will advance two key projects that will expand both ADNOC and Borealis downstream petrochemicals business and support the delivery of ADNOC’s integrated smart growth and partnership strategy’, according to an official press release. The company recently announced the expansion of its partnership model for the entire value chain as well as the more active management of its portfolio of assets and with already having begun talks with potential Asian partners on the new expanded partnership approach, Al Darei will continue to play a pivotal role in facilitating ADNOC’s successful future.