ADNOC, Borealis let multiple contracts for Borouge 4 petrochemicals expansion

Abu Dhabi Polymers Co. Ltd. (Borouge), a joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) and Borealis AG, has let a series of major contracts for the recently approved fourth expansion of Borouge’s integrated polyolefins complex in Ruwais, about 250 km west of Abu Dhabi City, UAE (OGJ Online, Nov. 17, 2021; Jan. 17, 2020).

As part of a Dec. 6 contract award, the consortium of Technip Energies and partner Arabtec Holding PJSC’s Target Engineering Construction Co. LLC to provide engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) works for a more than 1.5-million tonnes/year (tpy) ethane cracker equipped with proprietary process technology from Technip Energies, the Paris-based service company said.

Alongside EPC services for Borouge’s proposed fourth ethane cracker, Technip Energies’ scope of delivery also will include evaluation of the cracker’s carbon footprint to minimize future carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions at the site in line with the service provider and operator’s shared goal of accelerating the transition towards a low-carbon future, said Arnaud Pieton, Technip Energies’ chief executive officer.

Technip Energies—which also confirmed its participation in front-end engineering design (FEED) of the Borouge 4 petrochemical complex—valued the EPC contract at between €500 million and €1 billion.

The EPC contract for the Borouge 4 cracker follows the operator’s award just a day earlier of three additional EPC contracts for various packages of the site’s fourth-phase expansion to Maire Tecnimont SPA subsidiary Tecnimont SPA.

In a Dec. 5 release, Maire Tecnimont said Tecnimont’s scope of work under three contracts—all awarded on a lump-sum turnkey basis—covers EPC services on Borouge 4’s:

• Polyolefin units package, which includes two polyethylene units with a capacity of 700,000 tpy each, as well as a 1-hexene unit of unidentified capacity.
• Cross-linkable polyethylene unit package, which involves a unit to produce a form of highly resistant polyethylene used mostly in pipework systems (i.e., for domestic water), cooling systems, and electric cables insulation, as well as for chemical transportation.
• Utilities and offsites package, which includes utilities and offsite units for the entire Borouge 4 project.

In addition to complete engineering services, equipment and material supply, assembly, and construction activities, Tecnimont will provide commissioning and startup assistance as part of the EPC contracts that, combined, represent a value of about $3.5 billion, Maire Tecnimont said.

Borouge 4 overview

The latest series of contract awards follows the Borouge partnership’s mid-November final investment decision to move forward with the planned $6.2-billion Borouge 4 polyolefin manufacturing complex, which will house the new 1.5-million tpy ethane cracker, two polyethylene plants based on Borealis’ proprietary Borstar technology, and the cross-linked polyethylene plant to produce 1.4 million tpy of polyethylene to help meet increased demand for polyolefins by manufacturers across the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific.

Following startup, ADNOC said the Borouge 4 plant also will enable the next phase of growth of Ruwais’ broader industrial complex by allowing the Borouge partnership to supply feedstock to the TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone, one of three special industrial ecosystems under development by ADNOC and UAE’s ADQ that specifically aims to anchor a host of petrochemical projects by both domestic and outside investors.

Scheduled to become operational by yearend 2025, the Borouge 4 complex will boost the operator’s Ruwais sitewide production capacity of polyolefins—including polyethylene and polypropylene—to 6.4 million tpy from its current 4.5-million tpy capacity to make it largest single-site polyolefins complex in the world, according to ADNOC.

With construction activities already under way and major contracts for the project awarded, startup of the Borouge 4 complex will follow the pending commissioning by yearend 2021 of the Borouge partnership’s fifth polypropylene plant (PP5) at Ruwais that, once online, will have a maximum production capacity of 480,000 tpy (OGJ Online, Mar. 21, 2019; July 13, 2018).