UAE opens summit as energy industry weathers Middle East concerns

The United Arab Emirates opened its annual oil-and-gas summit on Monday as it plans to increase the country's energy output as global prices stay volatile and world politics remain uncertain ahead of the US presidential election.

The massive Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference comes after the UAE just last year hosted the United Nations COP28 climate talks. Those talks ended with a call by nearly 200 countries to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels - the first time the conference made that crucial pledge.

But the UAE as a whole still plans to increase its production capacity of oil to five million barrels a day in the coming years as it pursues cleaner energies at home.

Crude oil prices have been depressed this year. Benchmark Brent crude traded around $74 a barrel on Monday as prices have dropped after concerns over the ongoing Middle East wars growing into a regional conflict have faded in recent days.

Slowing economic growth in China and ample supply in the market are additionally dragging down prices.

In his speech opening the summit, Sultan al-Jaber, who heads the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, or ADNOC, pointed to artificial intelligence as a future technology that could be deployed by the energy industry - and one with a voracious appetite for electricity.

"No single source of energy is going to be enough to meet this demand," he said. He called for a variety of energy sources to meet that challenge, including fossil fuels.

"Oil will continue to be used for fuel and as a building block for many essential products," al-Jaber added.