ADIPEC 2025: Industry Calls for Policy Pragmatism, Embrace of AI, Capital Investment, and Infrastructure Development to Drive Global Progress

November 9, 2025
  • ADIPEC 2025 kicks off in Abu Dhabi with a powerful message from Dr. Sultan Al Jaber for a balanced and inclusive approach to meeting energy demand, built on reinforcement, not replacement.
  • Opening addresses and high-level sessions featuring CEOs and ministers spotlighted the importance of embracing all energy sources, all technologies, and all systems that enhance energy resilience and provide the world with prosperity for all.
  • Day 1 highlights included discussions on the convergence of energy and artificial intelligence, the mobilisation of capital for infrastructure and innovation, and the role of inclusive partnerships in accelerating system-wide transformation.

Abu Dhabi, 03 November 2025: ADIPEC 2025, the world’s largest energy conference and exhibition, opened today in Abu Dhabi, uniting world leaders under the theme ‘Energy. Intelligence. Impact.’.

At the Opening Ceremony, His Excellency Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, delivered the opening address before an audience of global leaders, where he called for a balanced and inclusive approach to meeting the world’s growing energy demand that embraces reinforcement of energy sources, not replacement.

HE Dr. Sultan called for policy pragmatism, embrace of artificial intelligence (AI), capital investment, and infrastructure development to optimise energy, attract capital, and advance technology to enable progress.

Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and hosted by ADNOC, ADIPEC 2025 brings together more than 205,000 attendees from 172 countries across the energy ecosystem, including over 45 ministers and 250+ C-suite executives.

Keynote Highlights

Also speaking at the ADIPEC Opening Ceremony was Doug Burgum, 55th Secretary of the Interior and Chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council, United States of America, who spoke about the transformative power of AI and the rise of data centres.

“For all of history, knowledge has been power. But today, for the first time, a kilowatt of electricity can be converted directly into intelligence. We now live in a world where we can manufacture intelligence. That is a first in human history. …I’ve stopped calling them data centres. These are factories manufacturing intelligence. This manufactured intelligence is a general-purpose technology, capable of transforming medicine, education, and every industry, including ours.”

— Doug Burgum, U.S. Secretary of the Interior

Ministerial Dialogue

The keynote was followed by a ministerial panel on national energy priorities, featuring:

  • H.E. Suhail Mohamed Al Mazouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, UAE
  • H.E. Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Qatar
  • H.E. Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Arab Republic of Egypt

Speaking about the importance of partnership, HE Badawi said:

“Collaboration is key… I thank Dr. Sultan and ADIPEC as a great example of really having an environment to foster this collaboration between different members, whether policymakers, different industries, and also how we’re leveraging collaboration with different countries right in the region.”

Day 1 Discussions: Energy, AI, and Global Transformation

Against a backdrop of surging artificial intelligence (AI) energy demands, new economic powerhouses rising and a global transformation of energy systems, ADIPEC 2025 serves as a nexus for cross-sector dialogue, collaboration, and action to unlock long-term value.

As Day 1 unfolded under the theme ‘Geopolitics, Strategic Resilience & Energy Security’, discussions spotlighted the shifting dynamics of global power and the urgent need to embed resilience into energy systems.

Redefining the Energy Major

In a session titled ‘Redefining the energy major: Competing and thriving in a new energy order’, Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, shared his insights:

“This transition is not about less energy; it is about more energy with fewer emissions. The planet needs more energy, full stop. And when we move from thinking in terms of oil and gas to thinking in terms of energy, that still means more oil and more gas, because they remain at the core of the system. But increasingly, the energy everybody is looking at now is electricity.”

AI and the Global Map

Continuing on ADIPEC 2025’s AI focus, in the session ‘Geopolitics rewired: power, partnerships and the new global map’, Ian Bremmer, President & Founder of Eurasia Group & GZERO Media, said:

“We have very little consensus, except there is consensus today that by far the biggest opportunity for the entire planet is that AI can transform human society. AI can transform every sector of the global economy. That will require much more energy, much more infrastructure, far more electricity than we presently have.”

Financing the Energy Transformation

Unleashing finance and investment to enable greater energy supply was another key focus. In the session ‘Trends and shifts in mergers and acquisitions: how to create sustained value’, experts including Reinhard Florey (CFO, OMV), Tom Sikorski (Founding & Managing Partner, Bluewater), and Martijn Rats (Global Commodities Strategist, Morgan Stanley) discussed the evolving energy finance landscape.

Speaking about the impact of data centres, Sikorski noted:

“There’s a bit of an arms race going on with the monetisation of energy into data. It’s a lot cheaper to ship data than energy. And so where there’s cheap energy, you can build data centres. And so the industrial knock-on for that here and in the US looks very exciting to me.”

ADIPEC 2025 continues through 6 November, with upcoming sessions addressing hydrogen, LNG, digitalisation, and the future of energy systems. Across four days, the event turns dialogue into delivery, catalysing partnerships and showcasing solutions that drive inclusive, sustainable progress at speed and scale.

– ENDS –

About ADIPEC

Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and hosted by ADNOC, ADIPEC 2025 takes place in Abu Dhabi from 3–6 November 2025.

Under the theme ‘Energy. Intelligence. Impact.’, ADIPEC 2025 serves as a global platform designed to address the world’s need for more energy, building resilience in today’s systems and scaling intelligent solutions to enable global progress.

The ADIPEC Conferences feature over 380 sessions across two flagship agendas – the Strategic Conference and the Technical Conference – exploring how strategic intelligence, innovation and advanced technologies can strengthen energy systems against emerging risks, ensure long-term security, and support the pragmatic evolution of tomorrow’s energy infrastructure.

ADIPEC 2025 expects over 205,000 attendees, offering unparalleled opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and progress. For more information, visit www.adipec.com.

For media inquiries, please contact: media@adipec.com
To register as media, visit: adipec.com/press-media/media-registration

About ADNOC

ADNOC is a leading diversified energy and petrochemicals group wholly owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADNOC’s objective is to maximise the value of the Emirate’s vast hydrocarbon reserves through responsible and sustainable exploration and production to support the United Arab Emirates’ economic growth and diversification.

For more information, visit www.adnoc.ae
For media inquiries, please contact: media@adnoc.ae

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