The petrochemical industry in Abu Dhabi is experiencing a rapid evolution and the UAE is targeting organic growth through an expansion of Borouge’s investment and the Abu Dhabi Polymer Park, the UAE minister of environment and water has said
The minister, Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahad, made the comments during the seventh annual GPCA forum in Dubai.
He highlighted 2011 as a landmark year for Gulf petrochemical producers in terms of output, which according to the GPCA reached 120mn tonnes.
“With several projects planned to come on stream within the next few years, the GCC countries will be in a position to become one of the significant emerging centres for the global petrochemical industry,” he stated.
Abu Dhabi is focusing on organic growth in the petrochemical industry and this is primarily focused on the expansion of Borouge’s US$1.2bn petrochemical complex in Ruwais.
In 2010, Borouge tripled its annual production capacity to two million tonnes and an additional 2.5mn tonnes per year will be added by mid-2014, creating the world’s largest integrated polyolefin plant on a single site.
“A key milestone in this downstream drive is the development of the Abu Dhabi Polymer Park, the world’s largest plastics park,” Bin Fahad argued.
The plastics park will span 4.1mn sqm with up to one million tonnes per year conversion capacity of a wide range of resins. The park’s projected investment is set to hit $4.5bn by 2015.
Bin Fahad emphasised Abu Dhabi's growing role in the region’s petrochemical industry, referring to the fact that ethylene production capacity expansion in Abu Dhabi was the highest in the region since 2007, reaching 2.1 mn tonnes per annum in 2012.
Bin Fahad said, “I believe that the future of the petrochemical industry in the Gulf and in particular in Abu Dhabi is bright.”
