Borouge awards ethane cracker contract to Linde

03-Jul-09

Borouge has awarded a US$1.075 bln contract to German industrial gas company Linde AG to build an ethane cracker. The cracker output will be about 1.5 mln tpa of ethylene and forms part of a major expansion of a production facility at Ruwais. The project will increase total polyolefins capacity of the complex to 4.5 million tpa by the end of 2013. In addition to the ethane cracker, it includes construction of second-generation polypropylene and polyethylene units based on Borealis's Borstar technology, a low-density polyethylene unit, and a butene unit, plus offsite utilities and marine facilities. The cracker under construction at Ruwais is part of a project to increase Borouge polyolefins capacity to 2 million tpa by mid-2010. Net ethylene output from that plant will be 600,000 tpa. Borouge is adding a 752,000 tpa olefins conversion unit, a 540,000 tpa polyethylene plant, and two 400,000 tpa polypropylene plants.