ADNOC-Backed AIQ Signs Deal to Enter India's Oil and Gas Industry
The Abu Dhabi AI firm will put its software into an Indian conglomerate's refineries, fuel stations and digital stores, without naming the customer or terms.
Tariq Benali Tariq Benali covers business and corporate news across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted, tracking the deals, leadership moves and regulatory shifts behind the region's companies. tariq@anecdoted.com
AIQ, an Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company backed by ADNOC, will move into India's oil and gas industry under a new agreement. The customer is an Indian oil and gas conglomerate; AIQ's software will run across its refineries, fuel stations and digital stores. Neither the client's name nor the financial terms were disclosed.
Chief executive Dennis Jol set out the deal at a media briefing. The company wants to sell its AI and machine-learning products outside the UAE energy industry — the market it was built to serve.
Seven markets and counting
AIQ started exporting its technology about 12 to 15 months ago. It now operates in North America, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Colombia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Kuwait. India would be another.
The overseas business is young, and the list has grown quickly. Acquisitions are part of the plan.
Jol said the company is sitting on substantial cash and that deploying it ranks among its top priorities. Buying a route into a new market is one option on the table.
Chief technology officer Saravan Penubarthi framed the strategy as a matter of access: a company needs an entry point into an international market, and that is where the focus sits now.
Jol placed 29th on a 2026 ranking of the Middle East's top technology chief executives.
What oil and gas operators are buying
Energy companies have been adopting AI for cloud-based software, for automating remote operations and for seismic-data analysis. AIQ builds tools meant to raise efficiency and profitability across the energy value chain, from upstream production through to the forecourt.
Ownership and revenue
Presight, an Abu Dhabi AI company, acquired 51% of AIQ in May 2024. ADNOC retained 49%.
The customer base is narrow. ADNOC and G42 account for 95% of revenue. External clients bring in 5%.
- May 2024: Presight takes 51% of AIQ; ADNOC keeps 49%.
- May 2025: a $340 million contract to deploy ENERGYai across ADNOC's upstream value chain.
- Latest: the agreement covering India.
ENERGYai combines a large language model with AI trained for specific upstream workflows. That $340 million deployment, agreed in May 2025, remains the clearest measure of how AIQ scales a product inside a single large customer.
For a company whose revenue is 95% internal, the India agreement tests a different kind of sale — one where the buyer is not also an owner.
