UAE. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. may start injecting carbon dioxide instead of natural gas into its offshore fields to enhance oil recovery, according to an official from the company’s Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Co. unit.

“We are looking at CO2 injection offshore,” Ali al- Muhairy, senior vice-president of development at Adma-Opco said at a conference in Abu Dhabi today. “We have tried using natural gas; now we are looking at CO2.” He declined to give a timeframe for the project to start.

Abu Dhabi National, or Adnoc, is looking at ways to reduce the oil industry’s use of the 5 billion cubic feet of natural gas produced daily in the U.A.E. so that the fuel can be used to meeting soaring power and industrial demand. Gas is used to increase pressure inside reservoirs to push more crude out.

Adnoc is working with Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar to capture carbon. One plan under consideration is to build a plant next to Emirates Steel Industries PJSC to capture 800,000 tons a year of CO2 from that plant, al-Muhairy said.

“Enhanced oil recovery will have to be a part of sustaining production,” he said. Adnoc is planning to boost output to 3.5 million barrels a day by 2017, from about 2.8 million now, and “we may see more,” al-Muhairy said.

Adma-Opco operates two main fields, Umm Shaif and Zakum.

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