Abu Dhabi's Borouge 4 plant more than 50% complete

The project remains on track and will be completed by the end of 2025

Borouge announced a dividend of $1.3 billion for 2023. Photo: Borouge

Borouge, the joint venture between Adnoc and Austrian chemicals producer Borealis, has said that more than 50 per cent of the Borouge 4 project at Ruwais in Abu Dhabi has been completed.

One of the largest ongoing industrial projects in the UAE, the initiative will expand Borouge's production capacity by 1.4 million tonnes annually, state news agency Wam reported on Monday.

It will increase the company’s overall polyolefin production to 6.4 million tonnes.

The project will empower Borouge to boost global sales of its polyolefins solutions and will “enhance the company’s production facilities at Al Ruwais Industrial City, making it the world’s largest single-site polyolefin complex”, the report added.

Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc and Borouge chairman, witnessed the construction progress including the installation of the world’s largest, first ever UAE-built Borstar gas phase reactor, during his recent visit to the site.

The project is advancing as planned and is set to be completed by the end of 2025. Once completed, it will be handed over to Borouge from its majority stakeholders, Adnoc and Borealis.

“This project is of significant importance to both Borouge and the development of the UAE’s industrial sector,” Wam quoted Hazeem Al Suwaidi, chief executive of Borouge, as saying.

“As one of the UAE’s largest industrial projects, it is already delivering significant economic impact, with considerable orders placed with [the] UAE manufacturers.”

Construction of Borough 4 project started in 2022. The project covers an area of over 3.4 million square metres, equivalent to 500 football pitches. It involves laying more than 7,500 kilometres of cables, utilising 340,000 cubic metres of concrete and incorporating 77,500 tonnes of structural steel.

Abu Dhabi plans to triple its petrochemical production capacity from 4.5 million tonnes – currently produced entirely by Borouge in Ruwais – by 2025.

Borouge’s first polythene unit was commissioned in 2001 and its capacity is 450,000 tonnes per annum.

Borouge 2 and 3, commissioned in 2010 and 2014, raised the capacity to 2 million tonnes and 4.5 million tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene per annum, respectively.

In May 2022, Borouge raised $2 billion through an initial public offering and was listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. The IPO, which was about 42 times oversubscribed, was the largest listing in Abu Dhabi at the time.

After its listing, Borouge was included in the FTSE Global Equity Index Series, which is used by investors globally to guide asset-allocation decisions and support portfolio construction.

In October, the company reported an annual drop of about 7 per cent in its third-quarter profit to $279.09 million due to lower revenue. It announced a dividend of $1.3 billion for 2023.