XRG at Two: How ADNOC's Investment Arm Became a $151bn Global Dealmaker

When ADNOC launched XRG in November 2024, it gave the new company a clear brief: build an international portfolio in natural gas, chemicals and lower-carbon energy, and more than double its asset value within a decade. Less than two years on, XRG has moved faster than that timetable implied.

A company that doubled in a year. XRG started life with an enterprise value of more than $80 billion. At ADNOC's annual board meeting in November 2025, chaired by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the board recognised XRG for lifting that figure to around $151 billion — close to double its launch value in its first year of operation.

Leadership at the top. Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, ADNOC's Managing Director and Group CEO and the UAE's Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, chaired XRG from its launch. He has since taken on the chief executive role at XRG directly, following the retirement of Khaled Salmeen, who had served as XRG's chief operating officer. The move puts the group's international strategy under the same leadership as ADNOC itself.

A board built for global deals. XRG's board, approved in December 2024, mixes UAE state leadership with international dealmaking experience. Alongside Al Jaber, it includes UAE Minister of Investment and ADQ chief executive Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, former BP chief executive Bernard Looney, Blackstone president Jon Gray and OCI Global executive chairman Nassef Sawiris.

Covestro: the defining deal. XRG's largest transaction to date is its takeover of German materials maker Covestro, one of the biggest Gulf acquisitions in European industry. After securing a majority of the shares through a voluntary takeover offer, XRG cleared the remaining EU and German regulatory approvals and completed the deal. Former OMV chief executive Rainer Seele, who now leads XRG's international chemicals business, has been elected chair of Covestro's supervisory board.

The US and gas. XRG is also building positions in natural gas and LNG, including an investment in NextDecade's Rio Grande LNG export project in Texas. Al Jaber has said XRG intends to deploy capital at scale in the United States over the coming decade, and ADNOC, XRG and Masdar together have committed more than $85 billion to US energy assets.

What to watch. With ADNOC's 2026–2030 business plan setting capital spending of $150 billion, XRG is positioned as the group's main engine for international growth. The questions now are how quickly it integrates Covestro, where it goes next in global gas, and whether ADNOC proceeds with a possible international listing of XRG, an option the group has said it is exploring.

For the Gulf, XRG marks a shift from selling energy to the world to owning a growing share of the global companies that turn that energy into products. Its next two years will show whether that model can deliver returns at the same pace as its first.

Sources: ADNOC and UAE government statements; Gulf News; Semafor; Reuters and Bloomberg reporting. Updated 23 October 2026.