Energy’s next challenge isn’t supply. It’s delivery

As populations grow, economies expand and new sources of demand emerge from artificial intelligence (AI), data centres and industrial development, the question confronting energy leaders is no longer whether more energy is needed. It is whether the infrastructure, investment and talent required to deliver it can keep pace.

That challenge has become more acute following a year of supply disruptions and heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Opening ADIPEC 2026, HE Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, highlighted how quickly market conditions can shift, noting that nearly one billion barrels of crude had been drained from global oil inventories following disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

“In a crisis, the speed of insight and the speed of decision-making is the difference between continuity and disruption,” he said.

The response, Dr Al Jaber argued, lies not only in producing more energy, but in building smarter, more resilient systems capable of adapting to changing conditions. From AI and advanced infrastructure to workforce development and industrial partnerships, the industry’s focus is increasingly shifting from supply alone to execution.

That is the backdrop to ADIPEC 2026. For more than four decades, the event has convened the companies, governments, investors and innovators shaping the global energy sector. This year, more than 239,000 participants are expected to gather in Abu Dhabi to address one defining question: how can the world develop, finance and deliver the energy capacity needed for the decades ahead?

How ADIPEC supports energy collaboration

ADIPEC’s 11 strategic conferences meet the moment head-on, addressing the urgent need to boost energy security in the face of supply disruptions and higher demand.

New this year is the Grids, Infrastructure & Industrial Execution programme. It explores why the ability to build, connect and protect infrastructure is becoming as strategically important as the energy it delivers.

Of equal importance is preparing the workforce for a digital-first energy sector. The new Workforce & Skills conference explores how talent and leadership are becoming critical determinants of project delivery, industrial competitiveness and long-term energy growth.

It builds on the success of Young ADIPEC, the longstanding youth engagement and educational initiative. Now in its 14^th year, Young ADIPEC introduces school and university students to the energy sector through science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities.

Meanwhile, ADIPEC’s Finance & Investment conference looks at how companies and governments can attract capital and finance the infrastructure to underpin future demand. The AI, Digital & Technology programme examines how AI and digital tools are changing the way energy is produced, managed and delivered.

Performance under pressure also underpins the other conferences. They cover energy security and resilience; policy, regulation and governance; upstream performance and efficiency; and clean power, molecules and carbon management.

Why we need more energy

Each of these themes tackles a different aspect of the core issue facing the sector today. The world needs more energy and the infrastructure to produce and deliver it must keep pace.

Global energy demand increased 1.3% in 2025, while electricity requirements grew 3%, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Those needs will become more pressing in the future, with rising demand from mobility, heating, cooling and industry.

One factor is a growing population, expected to hit 9.6 billion in 2050, up from 8.3 billion today. Emerging economies will account for much of the increase and could use 25% more energy than at present, according to ExxonMobil’s Global Outlook.

Industry now makes up 37% of total global energy consumption, with AI and digital infrastructure creating another source of demand. Data centres are expected to use twice as much electricity by 2030, although some newer ones have onsite power generation facilities.

New capacity must become available within a relatively short time, at a cost that allows economies to remain competitive while keeping greenhouse gas emissions at a minimum.

How energy capacity is expanding

In response, the sector is investing to diversify production and expand supplies. “The question is no longer whether the world needs more energy. It is whether we can develop, finance and deliver it fast enough,” Christopher Hudson, President of dmg events, which organises ADIPEC each year, said in a preview ahead of the show this week. “Meeting this challenge requires investment, innovation and partnerships at extraordinary scale. Oil, natural gas, renewables, nuclear and emerging lower-carbon technologies all have important roles to play. We must expand supply, strengthen infrastructure, improve efficiency and reduce emissions while keeping energy affordable and accessible.”

Oil and gas remain central to the energy mix, supporting transport, manufacturing, chemicals and electricity generation. Alongside, natural gas is more widely used and export capacity is expected to grow by 50% through to 2030 as new projects come online.

The most significant growth has come from renewable energy, which supplies more than a third of total electricity worldwide. The IEA expects installed renewable power capacity to more than double by 2030, led principally by solar and wind.

Emerging fuels are adding further capacity, with renewed interest hydrogen, ammonia and methanol growing in light of this year’s energy disruptions. However, a supporting infrastructure and dependable customer base have yet to reach critical mass – despite growing investment.

How energy investment shapes the future

As the energy mix broadens, it is attracting new capital – although investors remain cautious.

Global energy investment is forecast to hit a record $3.4 trillion by the end of this year. Two thirds of that amount, or about $2.2 trillion, is expected to flow towards clean energy, grids, storage and electrification, with $1.2 trillion earmarked for oil, gas and coal.

The investment naturally comes with scrutiny. As the world experiences a second global energy crisis in five years, investors are prioritising long-term demand and projects’ ability to withstand market and geopolitical uncertainty.

Regulation is a key factor. Around 230 billion barrels of oil and 40 trillion cubic metres of gas in new discoveries await development approval, for example. Clear policy frameworks and strong midstream and downstream infrastructure are determining whether projects can find funds or move to construction.

Why connected systems and sectors create value

But projects aren’t built in isolation. ADNOC’s announcement last month of a Dh60 billion investment into the UAE’s manufacturing sector indicated just how energy stability encourages opportunity across the economy. Powering our daily needs depends on an interconnected web that spans drilling equipment, catalysts, automation technology, transport and more.

New technologies supporting energy stability and the transition to a cleaner energy sector exemplify this interconnectedness. Hydrogen production, for example, needs affordable electricity and water, safe storage and transport, and customers able to use the fuel. When these elements are developed separately, costs rise, capacity goes unused and investment becomes harder to justify.

Likewise, conventional oil and gas developments depend on pipelines, processing facilities, shipping, refining and established customers. Electricity generation depends on grids, storage and demand centres.

If energy projects are connected to the wider economy, they support industrial growth and make it easier to bring new technologies to market. By the end of 2025, ADNOC’s In-Country Value programme had supported the development of 95 factories and job opportunities for more than 27,500 Emiratis in participating private-sector companies. The new announcement covers more than 200 essential products and critical spare parts through 2030.

As Dr Al Jaber put it, “We want our partners to grow with us, and we want that growth to create lasting value for the UAE.”

When digital technology serves as an intelligence layer

Energy systems have become more complex and operate in more challenging conditions. Power now comes from a wider range of sources. Weather affects generation, demand shifts occur several times a day, and ageing assets need regular maintenance. To coordinate these moving parts, energy companies across the sector are turning to digital technologies to build more efficient operations – although deployment differs across sub-sectors.

McKinsey estimates that AI could unlock $230 billion for oil and gas and oilfield services companies alone. At the distribution end, power and utilities appear to be further along the curve: Gartner predicts that 40% will deploy AI-driven control room operators by 2027, principally to lower human error.

Across the industry, digital technologies are serving as an intelligence layer. Applications can show up as AI-driven seismic interpretation, automated drilling, sensors that track extraction, and machine learning algorithms to improve reliability and resilience. At the electricity end, digital technologies can modernise the grid, while images from drones and satellites paired can be automatically analysed to identify operational risks.

Markets such as the UAE are leading the trend with their use of industrial and agentic AI platforms to optimise energy production and grid management. AIQ, the AI co-host at ADIPEC’s AI Zone, reported that a 90-day trial of its ENERGYai system produced a 70% improvement in accuracy in major seismic interpretation aspects at ADNOC.

How talent makes a crucial difference

Technology can help build and deliver a smarter energy sector, but human expertise remains crucial to managing operations and making critical decisions. The number of energy jobs reached 76 million last year, a 2.2% annual increase and nearly double the employment growth rate for the wider global economy. Yet, technical roles such as electricians, pipefitters, power-line workers and engineers are going unfilled.

Part of the reason is a grey tsunami as experienced workers approach retirement. By 2035, two out of every three new hires in the energy sector will be needed simply to fill replacement positions. Industrial transformation is another reason, with demand shifting towards digital domains such as data, automation, AI and cybersecurity, as well as toward expertise in renewable energy. McKinsey forecasts that renewables will need an additional 1.1 million workers to construct wind and solar plants, with another 1.7 million to run them.

The workforce challenge is therefore twofold: attracting the next generation of talent, while training existing staff to work alongside increasingly sophisticated technology. Without both, workforce shortages become another barrier to developing new capacity.

Where the delivery challenge is being addressed

The world’s energy future will not be determined by any single technology, fuel or company. It will be shaped by the ability of governments, investors and industry to deliver the infrastructure, investment and talent needed to meet growing demand.

As energy systems become larger, more connected and more complex, execution is becoming the defining challenge of the sector. ADIPEC’s role is to bring together the people responsible for solving it. In that sense, the event is not simply a showcase of energy’s future, but a forum for making it happen. The industry’s next challenge is no longer identifying opportunity. It is delivering on it.

ADIPEC is the world’s largest energy conference and exhibition. Hosted by ADNOC and organised by dmg events, this year’s event takes place from 2-5 November at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi. Find out more

This page was produced by The National in partnership with Adipec.