(Updates with more from the conference)

By Simon Webb

HOUSTON, March 11 (Reuters) - The investment arm of

United Arab Emirates state oil company ADNOC will make a

significant investment in U.S. natural gas starting in the

coming months, ADNOC CEO Sultan Al Jaber said on Tuesday.

The UAE is a member of the OPEC+ producer group and one of

the world's top oil producers. ADNOC's fully-owned investment

arm XRG has about $80 billion in assets and Reuters reported

last week the UAE was considering options for an XRG IPO.

"It is time to make energy great again," he told the world's

largest annual gathering of energy executives in Houston,

mirroring the Make America Great Again slogan of U.S. President

Donald Trump.

"Over the next few months and foreseeable future you will

see very large and significant investment by XRG in the United

States," he said.

XRG would invest throughout the gas supply chain, from

exploration and development through distribution, and wanted to

be a one-stop shop for gas, he said.

Trump has reversed some of the energy policies of his

predecessor Joe Biden as he overhauls government in the early

weeks of his presidency. Trump has exhorted the industry to

maximise production, although under Biden there were few checks

on production and oil and gas output hit record levels.

Trump ordered the

withdrawal

of the United States from the United Nations' Paris Climate

Agreement in January, removing the world's biggest historic

emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the

second time in a decade.

Jaber said it was time for pragmatic energy policy and

actions as the world needs all forms of energy supply to meet

rising demand.

Jaber presided over the UN's COP-28 climate talks in

December 2023, which took place in the United Arab Emirates. The

appointment of an oil industry chief executive to manage talks

to combat climate change was controversial.

Jaber said he had wanted to inject realism and

pragmatism into climate change talks when he took on that

mandate.

The race for supremacy in artificial intelligence

worldwide was essentially an energy play, he said, due to the

huge power demand needed for data processing to back AI.

XRG was designed to help meet the fast-growing demand of

energy for AI, he added.