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UAE-based petrochemical major Borouge announced on Monday that its Borouge 4 project, one of the largest industrial projects underway in the UAE, is over 50 percent complete.
Last week, the company completed the installation of UAE-built Borealis Borstar gas phase reactors, the world’s largest and weighing over 500 tonnes each, it said in a press statement.
The installation was witnessed by Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, and Chairman of Borouge.
The project is on track to be completed by the end of 2025, upon which it will be transferred to Borouge from its majority shareholders, ADNOC and Borealis, the statement said. The ADX-listed Borouge is a joint venture owned 54 percent by ADNOC and 36 percent by Austria-based Borealis.
The Borouge 4 project will boost the company’s production capacity by 1.4 million tonnes to a total of 6.4 million tonnes a year, the statement said.
Hazeem Sultan Al Suwaidi, Chief Executive Officer of Borouge said the project will transform the company’s Al Ruwais Industrial City facility in Al Dhannah into the world’s largest single-site polyolefin complex.
“As Borouge plays its part in driving ‘Make it in the Emirates’, the project has emerged as a pivotal catalyst for the UAE’s industrial growth, while also supporting the nation’s initiatives towards decarbonisation and energy efficiency,” he said.
Sultan Zaid Al Shehhi, Project Director of Borouge 4 noted that it is driving job creation with over 20,000 people on site and over 100 million manhours projected to be undertaken to complete construction work. UAE nationals make up 46 percent of Borouge project’s employees.
“We have worked closely with manufacturers and suppliers, both large and small, from across the UAE, to boost ICV and fast-track the delivery of this strategic growth project,” he said.
The project has already delivered substantial economic benefits by awarding purchase orders totalling over $600 million to companies within the country and is targeting an ICV score of 63 percent, the press statement said. For example, the electrical cables powering the plant, and the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) piping used are directly sourced and manufactured from Borouge’s polyethylene material, which is entirely produced in the UAE.
Borouge 4, which broke ground in 2022, will eventually incorporate more than 7,500 kilometres of cables, 340,000 cubic metres of concrete and 77,500 tonnes of structural steel, the statement noted.
A November 2021 press statement by Borealis said the project comprises:
- An ethane cracker, with 1.5 million tonnes ethylene output per annum, which will be the fourth cracker in Borouge’s Ruwais complex.
- Two additional Borstar polyethylene (PE) plants, each with 700,000 tonnes per annum capacity, using state-of-the-art Borealis Borstar third generation technology.
- A cross-linked PE (XLPE) plant of 100,000 tonnes per annum capacity
- A hexene-1 unit, which will produce co-monomers for certain grades of polyethylene.
The ethane cracker (EU4) is being enabled with tie-ins to a future carbon capture unit for seamless integration should this be activated, according to Borouge’s press statement. It has been designed to be positioned in the first quartile in comparison to Solomon Associates’ industry benchmarks for energy efficiency.
Borouge 4 will enable the company to supply feedstock - hydrogen, ethylene and raw C4 - to TA'ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone and meet customer demand in key markets, including China and India, which together account for approximately 65 percent of the global petrochemicals consumption and a substantial 80 percent of projected growth in the industry, the statement noted.
(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Dennis Daniel)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)
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