The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) and Borealis on Sunday agreed to advance two major projects to expand their Borouge petrochemicals joint venture.
First revealed in CW in November, the project involves the construction of Borouge 4 at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, and forms part of a plan to expand petrochemical production from the current 4.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) to 11.4 MMt/y by 2025.
Adnoc and Borealis will move to pre-front-end engineering and design for the construction of the Borouge 4 complex, which includes a world-scale, mixed-feed cracker using feedstock available in Abu Dhabi and downstream derivative units for both polyolefin and nonpolyolefin products. Adnoc told CW earlier that the cracker will be designed to produce 2 MMt/y of ethylene and 1 MMt/y of propylene. Borouge 4 is slated to come onstream around 2023 and will be integrated with Adnoc’s Takreer refinery.
The companies also have agreed to commence engineering, procurement, and construction tendering this year for an additional polypropylene (PP) plant based on Borealis’ Borstar technology. The plant will be integrated with the Borouge 3 complex and will be designed to produce 500,000 metric tons/year of PP using propylene from Takreer’s new propane dehydrogenation unit. Borouge 4 and the new PP plant will raise Borouge capacity to 10 MMt/y. Separately, Adnoc is planning to build an aromatics complex, designed to produce 1.4 MMt/y of para-xylene and 400,000 metric tons/year of benzene. The project was originally a part of Chemaweyaat. The companies declined to reveal the investment costs.
“The Borouge 4 complex and the polypropylene plant will allow us to grow our current petrochemical production to almost 10 million tons per year, enabling us to take advantage of the market opportunities we have identified, particularly in Asia, where the high-grade polymer market is set to double by 2040,” said Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, UAE minister of state and CEO of Adnoc.
Borouge currently has the capacity to produce 4.5 MMt/y of polyolefins, following the startup of Borouge 3 in 2016. Under the framework agreement, Adnoc and Borealis will review the extension of their Borouge joint venture beyond its first 30-year lifetime.
By Natasha Alperowicz
Source: Chemical Week
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