13 September 2026
ADNOC, XRG and Masdar announced nine agreements with German partners on Friday 11 September 2026, signed in Munich during the state visit of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Germany. ADNOC puts their combined potential at more than EUR 5 billion of investment across liquefied natural gas, natural gas, offshore wind, battery storage, low-carbon ammonia and artificial intelligence. The counterparties are RWE, Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE), MB Energy, Covestro, Siemens Energy, Siemens Industrial, Bosch Middle East and the Hamburg asset manager Luxcara. Every one of the nine documents is a letter of intent, a memorandum of understanding or a strategic collaboration agreement: not one is a binding supply contract, and not one carries a final investment decision. The package sits on top of the EUR 40 billion of intended long-term investment the UAE announced in Berlin the day before and on more than EUR 20 billion the three companies have already placed in German energy and industry. For a company operating in the UAE, nothing changes today: no licensing, tax, banking or visa rule is touched, and the first deliveries under the proposed LNG agreements are dated to the early 2030s.
The nine agreements and what each one actually is
ADNOC published the list in a single press release datelined Abu Dhabi and Munich, 11 September 2026. The instruments matter as much as the names, because a letter of intent and a memorandum of understanding commit the parties to work towards something, not to deliver it. The table below keeps the wording of the release and adds two columns that news summaries usually drop: where the asset would physically sit, and when anything is expected to happen.
| Parties | Instrument | Subject | Where the asset sits | Timing stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADNOC and RWE Supply & Trading GmbH | Letter of intent | Work towards up to two long-term LNG sales and purchase agreements, building on a strategic collaboration agreement from February 2026 | Supply from ADNOC Gas and XRG volumes: Ruwais, Das, Rio Grande, Mozambique, Argentina | Supply commencing in the early 2030s |
| ADNOC, XRG and SEFE | Memorandum of understanding | Explore gas supply, infrastructure, logistics and portfolio optimisation across the natural gas and LNG value chains | Not specified | Not specified |
| TA’ZIZ and Covestro | Letter of intent | Next steps in the joint feasibility study into a world scale MDI value chain, first announced in June 2026 | Ruwais, United Arab Emirates | Decision on the next phase in the coming months, production potentially in the early 2030s |
| Covestro, Fertiglobe and MB Energy | Memorandum of understanding | Explore cooperation on low-carbon ammonia supply chains into Germany | Not specified | Not specified |
| Masdar and RWE | Memorandum of understanding | Consider joint participation in future German offshore wind auctions | Germany | Future auction rounds, no date given |
| Masdar and Luxcara | Memorandum of understanding | Strategic partnership to explore joint investments in offshore wind and battery storage | Germany and wider Europe | Not specified |
| ADNOC and Bosch Middle East; ADNOC and Siemens Energy; ADNOC and Siemens Industrial | Three strategic collaboration agreements | Explore cooperation on advanced technology and artificial intelligence | Not specified | Not specified |
Source: ADNOC press release of 11 September 2026. One detail worth noting for anyone quoting the announcement: the opening paragraph of the release names seven counterparties, while Luxcara appears only further down, in the renewables section. The full list is eight companies across nine documents.
The agreements were announced alongside the launch of the UAE and Germany Investment Council, the body Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber had proposed in a German newspaper column days earlier. Its stated job is to bring government, capital and companies together, identify commercially viable opportunities and remove barriers to investment. A launch is not a rulebook: no mandate document, budget or application route has been published.
Three numbers that should not be added together
The announcement produced three euro figures in two days, and they belong to different baskets.
- More than EUR 5 billion. The potential that ADNOC says the nine new agreements could enable. The release says “potential to enable”, not committed or allocated. No breakdown by agreement is given, and no party has signed for a share of it.
- EUR 40 billion. Intended long-term UAE investment in Germany, announced in Berlin on Thursday 10 September 2026 and described in the joint declaration as an intention, without a term, a project list or named recipients.
- More than EUR 20 billion. Money already invested by ADNOC, XRG and Masdar in German energy and industry. This is history, not a forward commitment.
ADNOC does not say whether the EUR 5 billion sits inside the EUR 40 billion or beside it, so any total built by adding the three is the author’s arithmetic, not the company’s. The same caution applies to the largest single item inside the EUR 20 billion. ADNOC describes XRG’s Covestro investment as EUR 14 billion; the joint declaration published at the end of the state visit put it at around EUR 15 billion. The underlying transaction was an offer of roughly EUR 11.7 billion for the shares plus assumed debt, an enterprise value in the region of EUR 14.7 billion. When a figure goes into an investment memorandum or a board paper, it is worth citing the company’s own number and the document it came from.
The Ruwais side: the part of the package that sits in the UAE
The release frames the money as investment in Germany’s energy and industrial sectors, but two of the nine agreements point back to Abu Dhabi. That is the part with practical relevance for anyone building an industrial or trading business in the Emirates.
The LNG letter of intent with RWE Supply and Trading would be supplied from ADNOC Gas and XRG volumes including Ruwais, Das, Rio Grande in the United States, Mozambique and Argentina. Ruwais LNG is the anchor: two trains of 4.8 million tonnes a year, 9.6 million tonnes in total, with ADNOC holding 60% and BP, Shell, TotalEnergies and Mitsui 10% each. The first train is guided to the second half of 2028 and the second to early 2029, and the plant is designed to run on clean power, which ADNOC presents as a first for an LNG export facility in the region. It is the same plant behind the existing German relationship: SEFE signed a 15 year sale and purchase agreement for 1 million tonnes a year from Ruwais in November 2024, with deliveries from 2028. ADNOC now holds 1.6 million tonnes a year of long-term LNG supply agreements into the German market, which it equates to gas for more than 3.5 million German households.
The second Ruwais item is chemicals. TA’ZIZ and Covestro signed a letter of intent detailing the next steps of a joint feasibility study into a world scale methylene diphenyl diisocyanate value chain at Ruwais, a project first announced in June 2026. MDI is the base input for rigid insulation foam, coatings and adhesives. The parties aim to decide on the next phase in the coming months, subject to the outcome of the study and the required approvals, with a final investment decision and production start-up placed no earlier than the early 2030s. Nothing is under construction on the strength of this document.
Gas is where XRG has been building for a year: the company also took a licence position in Venezuela alongside BP, and the German letter of intent draws on the same portfolio.
The German side: wind, storage and the Covestro platform
Masdar’s existing German asset is Baltic Eagle, a 476 megawatt offshore wind farm of 50 turbines about 30 kilometres north east of the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. Masdar bought 49% from Iberdrola for roughly EUR 375 million in a project valued at about EUR 1.6 billion, and the farm reached full output in 2025. ADNOC puts its production at electricity for approximately 475,000 German homes. The two new renewables documents build on that base rather than replace it: one with RWE to consider joint bidding in future German offshore wind auctions, one with Luxcara, an independent Hamburg asset manager active since 2009 with more than EUR 8 billion under management across wind, solar, storage and hydrogen in twelve countries.
Battery storage is a familiar line for Masdar in Europe, which added a second United Kingdom storage project in August 2026, and it is part of the same clean energy build-out behind the UAE target of 35% clean energy by 2030 and 2031.
The Covestro platform is the anchor on the industrial side. XRG completed the acquisition on 10 December 2025, including a capital increase of EUR 1.17 billion paid into the company. Covestro reported sales of EUR 14.2 billion in 2024, with 46 production sites and about 17,500 full time employees. That platform is now on both sides of two of the new documents: the MDI study with TA’ZIZ in Ruwais and the ammonia memorandum with Fertiglobe, the ADNOC nitrogen business, and MB Energy.
What this changes for a company in the UAE
Read plainly, the announcement is corporate, not regulatory. It creates no rule, no fee, no procedure and no deadline. The honest list looks like this.
- Company formation and licensing: no change. Mainland and free zone requirements, activity lists and approvals are unaffected. Company setup runs exactly as before.
- Corporate tax and VAT: no change. No rate, threshold or filing rule is mentioned in the release.
- Banking: no change. Onboarding, know your customer files and source of funds evidence are unchanged for corporate account opening.
- Visas and residency: no change. Quotas, medicals and Emirates ID steps for work visas and residency are untouched.
- Document legalisation: no change. German corporate documents still travel the usual apostille and attestation route for use in the UAE, and legalisation timelines are the same.
- Worth watching: the Ruwais industrial base. If the MDI study converts into a project, the procurement, logistics and services demand lands in Al Dhafra. The trigger to watch is the next phase decision, expected in the coming months.
- Worth watching: the Investment Council. Bilateral councils tend to publish working groups and contact points later. There is nothing to apply to today.
- Worth watching: the German tax treaty. The agreement of 2010 lapsed on 31 December 2021 and has not been replaced. The joint declaration of 10 September records an intention to conclude the outstanding instruments, including on the avoidance of double taxation. It is a political signal, not a treaty, and no tax position should be changed on the strength of it.
The wider trade picture has been moving in one direction for two years, as the numbers behind the state visit itself showed. That is the context in which these nine documents were signed, and it is also the reason not to read more into them than they say.
How Atlant Capital can help
Atlant Capital works with the practical side of operating in the Emirates. We register companies on the mainland and in free zones, choose the structure and licence to match the actual activity, and handle amendments when the activity changes. We open corporate and personal bank accounts, prepare the know your customer pack and the source of funds file that UAE banks require from foreign shareholders, and we legalise foreign corporate and personal documents for use here. We arrange residence and work visas for owners, managers and their families. Accounting, audit, VAT and corporate tax filings are delivered by licensed accounting firms in our partner network. Valuation, deal terms, legal due diligence and project financing stay with the advisers, lawyers and lenders of the parties concerned.
Source: Gulf News.
FAQ
What did ADNOC, XRG and Masdar sign with German companies in September 2026?
On 11 September 2026 in Munich they announced nine agreements with eight German partners: RWE, SEFE, MB Energy, Covestro, Siemens Energy, Siemens Industrial, Bosch Middle East and Luxcara. They cover LNG and natural gas, offshore wind, battery storage, low-carbon ammonia and artificial intelligence. ADNOC says the agreements have the potential to enable more than EUR 5 billion of investment.
Is the EUR 5 billion committed money?
No. ADNOC says the agreements have the potential to enable more than EUR 5 billion. All nine documents are letters of intent, memoranda of understanding or strategic collaboration agreements, so no binding contract has been signed and no final investment decision has been taken. The release gives no breakdown by agreement and does not say whether the EUR 5 billion sits inside the EUR 40 billion package announced a day earlier.
When would LNG supplies to Germany under these agreements start?
The letter of intent with RWE Supply and Trading covers up to two long-term sale and purchase agreements with supply commencing in the early 2030s, sourced from ADNOC Gas and XRG volumes including Ruwais, Das, Rio Grande, Mozambique and Argentina. Separately, ADNOC already holds 1.6 million tonnes a year of long-term LNG agreements into the German market, including a 15 year contract with SEFE from Ruwais LNG with deliveries from 2028.
Does this change anything for a company registered in the UAE?
No. The announcement is a set of corporate agreements between two UAE state-owned groups and German companies. It changes no licensing requirement, tax rate, banking procedure, visa rule or document legalisation route in the UAE. The items worth tracking are the next phase decision on the TA’ZIZ and Covestro MDI study at Ruwais, expected in the coming months, and the work programme of the newly launched UAE and Germany Investment Council.
