DUBAI: Scheduled maintenance at three of the UAE's largest oilfields will cut oil output by 600,000 bpd in November, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) said yesterday.

At its peak, the maintenance would cut 810,000 bpd of output from the world's sixth-largest oil exporter, oil traders said last month.

The output reduction as detailed by Adnoc was about a quarter of the UAE's output. The Opec member produced about 2.56m bpd in August, according to a Reuters survey.

ADNOC will also do work at the 415,000 bpd Ruwais refinery from December 22 to February 25, cutting crude processing by a total of 5m barrels during the maintenance period, Adnoc said.

"Adnoc confirms that a scheduled essential maintenance programme will take place in November this year at three offshore fields: Upper Zakum, Lower Zakum and Umm Shaif. During the maintenance production will be reduce by approximately 600,000 bpd," Adnoc said.

All Adnoc's commitments to buyers had been met despite reduced output during the work by advancing loading dates for some cargoes and deferring others, Adnoc said.

The work will hit production as demand from consumer countries for oil rises ahead of winter. The UAE's crude is a favoured feedstock for Japanese refiners making heating fuels.

Japan buys about 40pc of the UAE's crude exports. Industry sources said last month the work would last for two to three weeks and start in late October.

The state oil firm also gave no details on the units to undergo work at Ruwais, the UAE's largest refinery. An industry source in August said Adnoc's refining arm Takreer would undertake work on a crude distillation unit and a diesel-making hydrocracking unit, shutting in around 150,000 bpd.