
The SLAs include arrangements with the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure to enable secure electronic data sharing for petroleum-products trading and company registration, with the Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council to integrate digital systems for personnel conformity certificates and petroleum permits, and with ADNOC Distribution to link data-systems for permit issuance and licence verification. According to the DoE, these agreements aim to streamline regulatory procedures, protect intellectual property and strengthen institutional coordination.
In one MoU, the DoE partnered with the Abu Dhabi Hazardous Materials Management Centre to develop a fully integrated regulatory and supervisory framework for hazardous and petroleum materials. The agreement will support a unified digital platform for real-time tracking and data sharing, enabling more precise monitoring of hazardous materials and reducing health and environmental risks through coordinated oversight across multiple agencies.
These developments reflect Abu Dhabi’s push to modernise its energy infrastructure by combining digital transformation with regulatory reform. DoE Under-secretary Ahmed Mohammed Al Rumaithi said the agreements “set a new benchmark for safety, efficiency and regulatory integration” and emphasised the Emirate’s ambition to become a hub for advanced data-management and operational excellence. He said the move would help create a “smarter and more secure energy future” for the Emirate.
From the federal side, MoEI Assistant Under-secretary Saif Ghubash said the collaboration supports the UAE’s Vision 2031 and the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 by creating an integrated model for data exchange between federal and local entities, improving service delivery, and ensuring robust safety standards. He described the digital-integration agreement with DoE as “a key advancement in the management and permitting of petroleum-product trading”.
Echoing this push toward digital governance, the QCC’s Acting Secretary-General Fahad Ghareeb Al Shamsi said that system integration will reduce administrative timelines and increase accuracy in conformity- and permit-data, thereby enabling faster service delivery and standardised processes aligned with the government’s digital-economy ambitions.
While the DoE emphasises the positive credentials of these partnerships, observers note some of the challenges ahead. Integrating data-systems across different agencies often encounters legacy-systems issues, questions around data privacy and intellectual-property rights, and the need to train staff to manage advanced analytics and AI systems. The trust between public authorities and private-sector operators will be crucial if the promised benefits of automation and real-time data-sharing are to be realised.
The regulatory commissions suggest that enhanced visibility over petroleum-product trading and hazardous-materials flows should help the sector respond more quickly to supply-chain disruptions and mounting compliance demands. Analysts also say this digital-backbone may support Abu Dhabi’s broader decarbonisation agenda by enabling smarter asset-management, matching operational spending with sustainability-metrics, and enforcing safety standards that transcend traditional regulation.
Industry participants at ADIPEC 2025 have been increasingly focused on how AI-driven monitoring, digital twins, and cloud-based platforms can shape the energy transition, and the DoE’s agreements underscore that the Emirate is positioning itself at the intersection of digitalisation and regulation. The timing coincides with global industry shifts in which regulatory agility, data-sharing realism and operational transparency are becoming competitive differentiators for national energy hubs.
Topics
Live News