Borouge announces further strategic expansion of polyolefins operations beyond Borouge 2
Borouge announced that it has initiated the feasibility study for Borouge 3: a further expansion of its polyolefin operations in Abu Dhabi to add approximately 2.5 million tonnes per year of capacity by end of 2014. The proposed expansion would enable Borouge, a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Borealis, to meet the growing demands of specific polyethylene and polypropylene markets in the Middle East and Asia in pursuit of its strategy to create value through innovation.
The Borouge 3 study will explore options to take advantage of additional feedstock becoming available from planned upstream ADNOC expansions to expand both Polyethylene and Polypropylene production capacities beyond the current Borouge 2 Project which is under construction and on target for start up in 2010.
Included in the Borouge 3 development scheme is a Low Density Polyethlene (LDPE) unit to produce high performance material for wire & cable applications. Borouge co-owner Borealis is already the market leader in wire & cable applications and this further expansion would strengthen its global market leadership. The feasibility study will also explore ways to increase Borouge's competitive position in Pipe, Automotive and Advanced Packaging applications to serve customers with completely new product generations.
The proposed expansion will boost Borouge's total production capacity to 4.5 million tonnes per year. It will be located alongside the existing Borouge 1 and Borouge 2 petrochemical complex at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
Borouge's current capacity is 600,000 tonnes of polyethylene per year, and the Borouge 2 expansion project will increase capacity to 2 million tonnes per year. Construction of Borouge 2 began in late 2007 and consists of an ethane cracker of 1.5 million tonnes per year, olefins conversion unit of 752,000 tonnes per year (the world's largest), two Borstar® polypropylene plants with a combined annual capacity of 800,000 tonnes, along with a new Borstar Enhanced polyethylene plant with an annual capacity of 540,000 tonnes.
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