Borouge’s proposed major expansion (Borouge 2) of its world-scale petrochemical complex in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, has made further headway with the award of four contracts.

The work for the front end engineering design (Feed) for an olefins conversion unit (OCU) was awarded to ABB Lummus Global Inc. When completed, the OCU will be the world’s largest at 752,000 tonnes per year (tpy). This OCU Feed is expected to take approximately 32 weeks and will be executed by the ABB team in Houston (US). Work to start the Feed for the polyolefin units was awarded to Fluor Mideast Ltd. The contract will be executed from Fluor’s offices in Haarlem (Holland) and Greenville (US), and is expected to take approximately 40 weeks.
A mandate was awarded to MWH to carry out the study of health, safety and environment impact assessments (HSEIA) for the facilities and the lenders. The first phase will be completed by September 2006. Finally, Maersk Logistics was selected as Borouge’s supply chain study consultant to advise on the supply chain concept for Borouge 2 products.
Borouge 2 is a multi-billion-dollar project, one of the largest petrochemical projects in the Middle East. It will see the company expand its production capacity from its 2005 capacity of 600,000 tonnes to 2 million tonnes of enhanced polyolefins per year. The new capacity will comprise one 540,000 tpy Borstar technology enhanced polyethylene unit and two 400,000 tpy Borstar polypropylene units.
The new expansion will be located next to Borouge’s existing petrochemical complex in Ruwais and is expected to be completed in 2010. The new capacity will be marketed mainly to the Middle East and Asia Pacific, targeting high-end applications in the pipe and high performance packaging areas.
Borouge is a provider of value-creating, innovative plastics solutions for customers throughout the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.  It came to the market as a ground-breaking partnership between Adnoc, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and Borealis. Together, Borouge and Borealis employ unique Borstar technology to produce versatile polymers for end-use plastics applications. Borouge’s state-of-the-art production facility in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi in the UAE, produces Borstar-enhanced polyethylene products for the pipe, wire and cable and advanced packaging markets.
Borouge is also the exclusive provider of the entire Borealis product line throughout the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The Borouge model of providing added-value plastics solutions to a wide variety of growth industries is supported with a sales and marketing head office in Singapore, sales offices in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, Beirut and Al Khobar-Dammam along with an extensive sales agent network across the region.
Meanwhile, Borouge has announced it is now an official member of the PE100+ Association, an industry organisation comprising polyethylene (PE) manufacturers, of which Borealis, Borouge’s parent company, is also a member. Borouge’s Borstar HE3490-LS (black) pipe grade, manufactured in Ruwais, passed the second round of testing required tojoin the “PE100+ Quality materials” list.
Established in 1999, the PE100+ Association’s main objective is to guarantee consistent quality at the highest level in the production and use of PE100 pipe materials. The association has an advisory committee comprising representatives from the gas and water industries, pipe and fitting manufacturers and contractors. Although their main roles are market guidance and feedback, the committee helps ensure that industry requirements are fulfilled.
The association issues the list of high-performance grades on a regular basis through the monitoring of the most critical properties, mainly the creep rupture strength, stress crack resistance and resistance to rapid crack propagation. The qualification procedure involves two rounds of stringent testing, with a “batch list” of pipes submitted to Gastec, the administrator, for selection. Reconfirming tests are conducted every seven months. The pipes undergo a pipe notch, internal pressure and S4 tests.