Borealis AS, Copenhagen, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) have marked progress on a major olefins complex in Abu Dhabi.
In other key petrochemical projects around the world, Royal Dutch/Shell units are planning an olefins capacity increase in the Netherlands and a new ethylene glycol plant in Canada.
Abu Dhabi
Borealis and Adnoc let contract for an undisclosed sum to the Fluor Mideast unit of Fluor Daniel Inc., Sugar Land, Tex., to oversee construction of a polyethylene plant alongside the Ruwais refinery in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
Fluor will manage design, engineering, procurement, and construction of an ethylene cracker and two polyethylene trains, with combined capacity to produce 450,000 metric tons/year of polyethylene.
Borealis said the size of the ethylene cracker has not yet been fixed, but the polyethylene units will be based on its proprietary Borstar bimodal process.
The polyethylene plant is due on stream late in 2000. The project is linked to doubling Ruwais refinery's crude distillation capacity from its current 135,000 b/d (OGJ, Aug. 5, 1996, p. 27).
The polyethylene production operation will be owned 60% by Adnoc and 40% by Borealis. A separate marketing joint venture, with equal ownership, will be established to market plant output in Asia, through a Singapore base.
Netherlands
This month, Shell Nederland Chemie will begin a detailed study into increasing ethylene and propylene manufacturing capacity at its Moerdijk plant in the Netherlands.
Shell reckons a $150 million upgrade, using technology of Stone & Webster Engineering Ltd., Milton Keynes, U.K., could increase cracker capacity to 950,000 metric tons/year from 650,000 metric tons/year.
The company intends to begin work on the upgrade early in 1998, subject to findings of the study, and anticipates first production in early 2000.
The expansion is intended to reduce unit production costs at Moerdijk. Much of the extra production is expected to be used by Shell companies. This is the latest in a series of shuffles among European petrochemical producers (OGJ, Feb. 3, 1997, p. 35).
Canada
Shell Chemicals Canada confirmed it will proceed with engineering design of a 400,000-metric ton/year ethylene glycol plant at its Scotford plant near Fort Saskatchewan.
The new plant is expected to cost $400 million (Canadian), and is due on stream in 2000. The design will be based on Shell proprietary technology, used in 40% of ethylene glycol production capacity worldwide.
Shell said project start-up is timed to match increasing demand from customers in North America and the Pacific Rim. Ethylene glycol demand has been growing at 6%/year and is expected to continue at this rate.
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