Today, in addition to the oil fields mentioned, the main producing fields onshore are Asab, Sahil and Shah, and offshore are al-Bunduq, and Abu al-Bukhoosh. In 1962, the company discovered the Bu Hasa field and ADMA followed in 1965 with the discovery of the Zakum offshore field. This was followed in 1959 by PDTC's onshore discovery well at Murban No.3. In 1958, using a marine drilling platform, the ADMA Enterprise, oil was struck in the Umm Shaif field at a depth of about 2,669 metres (8,755 ft). In 1953, D'Arcy Exploration Company, the exploration arm of BP, obtained an offshore concession which was then transferred to a company created to operate the concession: Abu Dhabi Marine Areas (ADMA) was a joint venture between BP and Compagnie Française des Pétroles (later Total). However, owing to the desert terrain, inland exploration was fraught with difficulties. This was followed by a seventy-five-year concession signed in January 1939. On 5 January 1936, Petroleum Development Trucial Coast Ltd (PDTC), an associate company of the Iraq Petroleum Company, entered into a concession agreement with the ruler, Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan, to explore for oil. In the mid to late 1930s, as the pearl trade declined, interest grew in the oil possibilities of the region. Following their withdrawal from India in 1947, the British maintained their influence in Abu Dhabi as interest in the oil potential of the Persian Gulf grew. After piracy was suppressed, other considerations came into play, such as a strategic need of the British to exclude other powers from the region. The main purpose of British interest was to protect the trade route to India from pirates, hence, the earlier name for the area, the "Pirate Coast". In the 19th century, as a result of treaties (known as "truces" which gave the coast its name) entered into between Great Britain and the sheikhs of the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, Britain became the predominant influence in the area. The divers were not paid for a day's work but received a portion of the season's earnings. The divers had a leather nose clip and leather coverings on their fingers and big toes to protect them while they searched for oysters. There were no air tanks and any other sort of mechanical device was forbidden. Pearl divers dive for one to three minutes and would have dove up to thirty times per day. According to a source about pearling, the Persian Gulf was the best location for pearls. The pearl diving business was a key industry prior to the discovery of oil reserves. ĭecorated stone cup from Umm Al Nar site, Abu Dhabi on display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi accounts for about two-thirds of the roughly $400 billion UAE economy. It is the country's center of politics and industry, and a major culture and commerce center. Abu Dhabi's rapid development and urbanization, coupled with the massive oil and gas reserves and production and relatively high average income, have transformed it into a large, developed metropolis. The city is home to the President of the UAE, who is a member of the Al Nahyan family. Ību Dhabi houses local and federal government offices and is the home of the United Arab Emirates Government and the Supreme Petroleum Council. Abu Dhabi itself has over a trillion US dollars worth of assets under management in a combination of various sovereign wealth funds headquartered there. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is headquartered in the city, and was the world's 3rd largest sovereign wealth fund in 2020. As of 2020, Abu Dhabi's urban area had an estimated population of 1.48 million, out of 2.9 million in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, as of 2016. Most of the city and the Emirate reside on the mainland connected to the rest of the country. The city of Abu Dhabi is located on an island in the Persian Gulf, off the Central West Coast. Abu Dhabi ( UK: / ˈ æ b uː ˈ d ɑː b i/, US: / ˈ ɑː b uː/ Arabic: أَبُو ظَبْيٍ Abū Ẓabī Arabic pronunciation: ) is the capital and the second-most populous city of the United Arab Emirates (after Dubai).