Following approval of its expansion plans by the emirate’s Supreme Petroleum Council at the end of 2017, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc, Abu Dhabi / UAE; www.adnoc.com) is proceeding swiftly with its “Strategy 2030” scheme – for the latest coverage see Plasteurope.com of 19.07.2017. The company has now announced a USD 45 bn expansion project for its Ruwais petrochemical complex, which it said will add more than 15,000 jobs and boost GDP of the United Arab Emirates by 1% annually. The plans include construction of what CEO Ahmad Al Jaber said would be “the world’s single largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals destination.”

Speaking at the “Downstream Investment Forum” in Abu Dhabi, Al Jaber appeared to be taking up the challenge of keeping up with the emirate’s bigger neighbour Saudi Arabia as regards petrochemicals and plastics investment. “Our upstream business will be a core part of our DNA,” he said, while adding that the sharpest growth will be seen downstream, where demand for petrochemicals is expected to double in the next 20 years. Financial analysts who watch the Middle East noted that Abu Dhabi’s goal is to be involved in the entire supply chain, as a hedge against the shifting energy market.

In its latest move, Adnoc will join with partners to widen refining capacity at Ruwais by more than 65%, or 600,000 bbl/d, up to 2025. Along with doubling crude oil refining capacity, the expansion is planned to treble petrochemicals output from 4.5m t/y to 14.4m t/y The new refinery, the site’s third, will expand overall throughput to 1.5m bbl/d. Also to be added are an aromatics unit with capacity to turn out altogether 1.6m t/y of benzene, toluene and xylene. Benzene output is to be processed into linear alkyl benzene (LAB) under an agreement with Adnoc’s Spanish sister company Cepsa (Madrid; www.cepsa.com), which also belongs to the holding Mubadala (Abu Dhabi; www.mubadala.com).

The expanded Ruwais site is also planned to house one of the world’s largest mixed feed crackers with capacity to produce 1.8m t/y of ethylene – which would also generate around 1m t/y of propylene. Additionally, Adnoc is planning to build a new petrochemicals derivatives and conversion park that it said will be designed to boost manufacturing capabilities in construction chemicals, oil and gas chemicals, detergents and packaging materials, among other products.

At the Abu Dhabi forum, Belgian compounder and distributor Ravago (Arendonk; www.ravago.com) announced it would build and operate a state-of-the-art polyolefins compounding plant in the new Ruwais addition as well as “explore potential collaboration opportunities” with Adnoc. Up to now, almost all chemicals output at the site is operated by Borouge, the joint venture with Borealis (Vienna / Austria; www.borealisgroup.com). According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), the jv has capacity to produce nearly 2.7m t/y of PE and 2.8m t/y of PP.