Upper Zakum oil field
Upper Zakum oil field is an offshore field about 84 km northwest of Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf, United Arab Emirates. It was discovered in 1963 and started production in 1977. It was developed by Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Ltd., a joint venture of BP and Compagnie Française des Pétroles (now Total). The field is owned by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and operated as part of ADNOC Offshore (formerly ZADCO).
Foreign participation totals 40%, with ExxonMobil owning 28% and Japan Oil Development Co (JODCO) holding 12%.
The oil in place for Zakum plus the nearby Lower Zakum field is about 50 billion barrels (around 6.7 billion tonnes). Current production from Upper Zakum is about 500,000 barrels per day, with a project near completion to raise production to 750,000 barrels per day.
Together, Upper Zakum and Lower Zakum are among the world’s largest offshore oil fields—the second largest offshore field and the fourth largest oil field overall.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:37 (CET).