The story
The beginnings of TAQA lie within Abu Dhabi's 1998 government initiative, seeking to privatize the Emirate's water and electricity sector. Following the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA).
TAQA was founded in June 2005 pursuant to the provisions of an Emiri Decree in 2005 as a public joint stock company. ADWEA served as the founding shareholder, holding 51% of the company.
In May 2006 TAQA appointed Peter E. Barker-Homek, an American businessman, as its first CEO. TAQA expanded quickly under the guidance of Barker-Homek, making several key acquisitions in Africa and North America. In Canada, TAQA acquired Northrock Resources Ltd.(US$2 billion), Pioneer Natural Resources Canada Inc (US$540 million) and PrimeWest Energy Trust (US$5 billion).
In 2008 TAQA acquired several North Sea assets from Shell U.K. Limited and Esso Exploration and Production (UK) Limited. The purchase included all equity, associated infrastructure and production licenses relating to the Tern, Eider, Cormorant North, South Cormorant, Kestrel and Pelican fields and related sub-sea satellite fields.
In late 2009, Barker-Homek relinquished his position as CEO and was replaced by Carl Sheldon. Sheldon had joined TAQA as General Counsel in 2008.
In 2010, Barker-Homek sued TAQA under breach of contract allegations, claiming that he was fired because he spoke out against "fraudulent and unethical practices" at TAQA and was threatened with arrest and imprisonment if he had not signed his severance agreement to leave the company. The lawsuit was dismissed by Michigans District Court Judge John Corbett O'Meara in 2011.
In 2010, following huge investments and an asset increase of more than 300% between 2005 and 2008 (to $23 billion), Sheldon announced a "period of consolidation" and "organic growth", focusing on operational profitability.
In 2012, TAQA sold their Tesla shares in order to finance investments into a power plant in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
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In 2014 Carl Sheldon left the company and handed over his responsibilities to Edward LaFehr, who took on the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer. LaFehr was previously President of TAQA's North America business. In 2016, LaFehr left TAQA and was replaced by acting COO, Al Dhaheri.
In 2019, TAQA reported for Q1 a 95% decline profit because of foreign exchange losses and revaluation of its power assets in the US. In H1 2019 revenues by 5% compared to H1 2018.
In July 2020, TAQA and ADPower announced the successful completion of their merger. This created one of the largest utilities in the region. Its total assets are estimated at AED 200 billion, making Taqa the third largest listed company in the UAE and one of the top ten utilities in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
In December 2021, TAQA and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced a $3.6 billion project to aim to reduce the carbon footprint of ADNOC's offshore production operations by more than 30%.
TAQA was ranked 11th on Forbes Middle East's Top 100 Listed Companies 2025 list.
From Wikipedia’s article on TAQA, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3