Borouge lets contract for new cracker at Ruwais petrochemical complex

Abu Dhabi Polymers Co. Ltd. (Borouge), a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) and Borealis AG, Vienna, has let a contract to a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont SPA for work related to another project designed to expand production capacities at Borouge’s integrated polyolefins complex in Ruwais, about 250 km west of Abu Dhabi City, UAE (OGJ Online, July 18, 2017).

Tecnimont SPA will deliver front-end engineering and design (FEED) services for the fourth expansion phase of Borouge’s Ruwais complex, which will include a mixed-feed cracker with an ethylene production capacity of 1.8 million tonnes/year, the service provider said on Feb. 26.

The new cracker—which, once completed, will become the complex’s fourth—also will be associated with several other unidentified processing units, utilities, and off sites.

Maire Tecnimont said it expects to complete its scope of work under the FEED contract—valued at about $45 million on a reimbursable basis—sometime in 2020.

This latest contract follows Borouge’s previous award to Tecnimont to deliver engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for a fifth polypropylene plant (PP5) at the site that will have a maximum production capacity of 480,000 tpy (OGJ Online, July 13, 2018).

In late 2018, Borouge broke ground on construction of the PP5, which upon completion in third-quarter 2021, will expand the operator’s polypropylene production capacity by more than 25% to 2.24 million tpy, Borouge said in a Dec. 27, 2018, release.

The Borouge projects come as part of ADNOC’s previously announced plans to accelerate expansion initiatives at the Ruwais refining and petrochemical complex as part of the company’s $45-billion program to become a global downstream leader under a new combined model of strategic partnerships and investments (OGJ Online, May 23, 2018; May 14, 2018).