Gulf News reported that Abu Dhabi, Borouge has awarded a USD 1.07 billion contract to Germany's Linde Group for building a 1.5 million tonne per year ethane cracker at Al Ruwais in Abu Dhabi.
Mr Abdul Aziz Al Hajri CEO of Borouge said that "The awarding of this contract confirms Borouge's commitment to the Borouge 3 project, a major expansion of our production facility in Al Ruwais which will increase the total capacity of the plant to 4.5 million tonnes of polyolefins annually by the end of 2013."
A spokesman for Borouge said that "The project will start shortly and will take about 49 months for completion. The Linde Group has been our contract partners for Borouge 1 and Borouge 2 projects."
In addition to the ethane cracker, the expansion includes the construction of polypropylene and polyethylene units, a low density polyethylene unit and a butene unit, as well as related offsite utilities and marine facilities. The contract will be executed on a 'lump sum turnkey' basis whereby the construction work will be executed by Consolidated Contractors Company. After the completion of the new cracker, Borouge will have the world's largest ethane cracker complex, setting a new benchmark for the industry.
Mr Al Hajri said previously that Borouge's planned expansion is part of the company's vision to become a major player in the global plastic industry. Borouge plans to export the bulk of its output mainly to the Middle East, China and India.
A Borouge statement said that "The awarding of the contract is a major milestone in the company's growth strategy in the infrastructure, automotive and advanced packaging markets in the Middle East and Asia, and is an important step in the development of the Abu Dhabi petrochemicals landscape."
