Tests on the long-awaited expansion of Abu Dhabi’s Ruwais fuel refinery have started and the project will be fully commissioned during the fourth quarter.
“Construction of the facility has been completed, the commissioning has started,” Jasem Ali Al Sayegh, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Oil Refining (Takreer), said on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Downstream conference in the capital.
“We’re hoping to complete the commissioning in the fourth quarter of this year.”
Takreer signed contracts worth US$9.6 billion in March 2010 with SK Engineering, Samsung and Daewoo to increase the Ruwais facility's daily output by about 415,000 barrels per day. The newly expanded plant will process Abu Dhabi's Murban crude oil grade.
The expansion of the plant, located some 240 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi city, was originally slated for completion by the end of 2013.
“You have to appreciate that this is a mega-project and it is a long process,” said Mr Al Sayegh.
“It will be fully operational towards the end of the year. This is what we’re expecting, of course, if everything goes according to the plan.”
The expansion of the Ruwais refinery is key to Abu Dhabi’s plan to diversify its economy away from upstream extraction by investing in its downstream capacities, said Mr Al Sayegh.
The plans received a boost in December with the signing of an agreement between Abu Dhabi’s Chemaweyaat and Thailand’s Indorama Ventures for the construction of a chemicals plant in the Western Region.
The joint venture plant will produce 1.4 million tonnes a year of paraxylene, which can be used to make fibres or plastic bottles, and 500,000 tonnes of benzene. However, no other details about the project are available.
The UAE’s downstream capacity trails that of Saudi Arabia. The kingdom’s includes high-profile joint venture refining projects including Satorp and Yasraf, together with Sadara Chemicals.
However, Mr Al Sayegh insisted that there was room for both markets to work alongside one another.
“We don’t see ourselves in competition with what’s happening in Saudi Arabia, we believe rather that what we’re doing will be a complement to what they offer.”
The investment in downstream facilities must be matched by investment in human capital as a means of tackling unemployment in the region, according to Moosa Al Moosa, the general manager and UAE finance director for Dow Chemical.
“More than 50 per cent of our population [in the Middle East] is under the age of 25,” Mr Al Moosa said. “We need to see more focus on trying to create more jobs, and this is where the petrochemicals industry and the refining industry can play a role.”
jeverington@thenational.ae
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Fixtures
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
MATCH INFO
Alaves 1 (Perez 65' pen)
Real Madrid 2 (Ramos 52', Carvajal 69')
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
SPECS
Nissan 370z Nismo
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 363hp
Torque: 560Nm
Price: Dh184,500
