Trading in the shares of the natural gas unit recently established by the Emirati company ADNOC begins on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, after an initial public offering of $ 2.5 billion aimed at benefiting from the high global demand for gas.

The subscription to the offering of the "ADNOC Gas" company witnessed a great turnout from investors, even after raising the volume of the subscription from 4 to 5 percent of the company's shares, in response to strong demand.

The volume of the offering amounted to about 2.5 billion dollars, after setting the final share price at 2.37 dirhams (0.645 dollars), and the market value of the company amounted to about 50 billion dollars.

The IPO of ADNOC Gas will be the largest initial public offering in the world so far in 2023, and the largest ever listing on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange.

With the subscription exceeding the target value by fifty times, the demand for the public offering of ADNOC has become the largest in the Middle East and North Africa, surpassing the world record set by Saudi Aramco three years ago of $ 29.4 billion.

The first public offering, organized by ADNOC, came quickly in the wake of the rush to search for alternative gas resources after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also with the countries' search for cleaner energy sources to confront the climate change crisis.

Energy expert Rudi Baroudi, who heads Qatar-based Energy and Environment Holding Company, expected demand to increase with the start of trading in shares.

"There is every reason to expect that the massive oversubscription that we have seen will continue to generate strong interest when the shares go public," he told AFP.

ADNOC, which generates the largest revenue for the UAE treasury, retained a 90 percent stake in its new subsidiary, which was formed from its previous units to process liquefied natural gas.

Gas is described as environmentally cleaner than other fossil fuels, with many countries in the world seeking to reduce their emissions.

Baroudi considered that LNG is "the most important transitional fuel while giving up hydrocarbons."

And in 2021, the UAE produced approximately 57 billion cubic meters of natural gas, or 1.4 percent of global production, according to BP statistics.

In the same year, the UAE exported about 8.8 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, representing about 1.7 percent of the volume of global exports, according to the British International Energy Company.

"With the acceleration of global efforts to combat climate change, the role of natural gas in general (...) is widely expected to grow," Baroudi said.

He added, "ADNOC has a good reputation, so it was expected that the public offering in ADNOC Gas would attract strong interest."

The ADNOC Gas IPO could be the start of another series of IPOs in Abu Dhabi this year.

It is expected that at least eight companies in the fields of technology, asset management and renewable medicine will follow in the footsteps of ADNOC, according to what Bloomberg quoted Sameh Al Qubaisi, Director General of Economic Affairs at the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi.