ABU DHABI, 19th July, 2026 (WAM) — Abu Dhabi’s XRG is rapidly expanding its presence across the Americas, assembling an integrated energy and industrial platform that extends the UAE’s economic reach and reinforces its role as a long-term global investor.
In recent months, XRG has advanced strategic investments across LNG, chemicals, advanced materials, and upstream gas while launching a new global trading platform with ADNOC and ADNOC Gas. Together, these moves position the company as one of the most active long-term investors in the Americas energy growth story, while demonstrating how the UAE is deploying capital internationally to build resilient businesses in sectors critical to energy security, industrial development, and future economic growth.
The clearest proof point is Rio Grande LNG in Texas, where XRG now holds equity interests across all five trains currently under construction at the 30 million tonnes per annum export project. The investment gives XRG exposure to one of the world’s largest LNG export developments and strengthens its ability to connect advantaged U.S. gas supply with growing international demand.
Rio Grande LNG is only one part of a broader platform. XRG is also building a global LNG marketing and trading business targeting a 47 MTPA marketable portfolio by 2035. It is expanding into Argentina’s Vaca Muerta basin through a 32% stake in upstream assets supporting the 12 MTPA Argentina LNG project, and establishing a major North American chemicals and advanced materials footprint through Covestro, Borouge International, and NOVA Chemicals, a major Canadian-based petrochemicals producer with operations across North America.
Covestro provides XRG with an established U.S. manufacturing and innovation platform serving industries including automotive, construction, electronics, and healthcare. Its recent acquisition of the former Vencorex production site in Freeport, Texas, further expands that footprint and strengthens its ability to supply high-performance materials for a range of industrial applications.
Together, these businesses demonstrate the strategic connection between XRG’s gas, chemicals, and advanced materials portfolio. XRG is investing across the value chain, from the molecules that provide energy and industrial feedstocks to the advanced materials used in smartphones, medical devices, vehicles, and buildings. This positions the company not only as an energy supplier, but as a provider of materials that support industrial development and technological innovation.
For the UAE, the significance is strategic as well as commercial. XRG’s Americas portfolio expands the nation’s economic reach into major global growth markets, deepens its participation in energy infrastructure and industrial value chains, and supports the creation of a diversified international platform anchored in long-term partnerships.
The United States is the anchor market for XRG’s growth strategy in the Americas. Across XRG, ADNOC, and Masdar, the UAE has already invested more than $85 billion in U.S. energy assets across 19 states, supporting power generation, advanced chemicals, and energy infrastructure.
“The United States is central to XRG’s ambition to build a globally integrated energy and industrial platform,” said Philip Haddad, CEO of XRG Americas. “With teams on the ground in Washington, D.C. and Houston we work with partners across the U.S. to identify investments that connect American energy and industrial capabilities with growing global demand. In doing so, we are supporting XRG’s growth while advancing the UAE’s role as a long-term international investor.”
The approach also reflects the UAE’s broader ambition to invest in businesses that can perform across market cycles, support global energy security and capture demand linked to AI-driven power growth, reindustrialization and rising global LNG consumption.
With assets and partnerships now spanning LNG in Texas, North American chemicals and Argentine gas, XRG is building a platform that positions the UAE not only as a supplier of energy, but as a global investor in the infrastructure, materials and commercial networks shaping the next phase of industrial growth.
Source: Emirates News Agency