Borouge: a 20-year journey of growth in Asia and Middle East
Founded 20 years ago, Borouge is a leading petrochemicals company providing innovative plastics solutions for the energy, infrastructure, mobility, packaging, healthcare and agriculture industries, Borouge continues to go from strength to strength.
Borouge’s first polyethylene plant, based in Ruwais, United Arab Emirates, opened in 2001 with 450,000 tonnes capacity. In the following years, the company expanded production into polypropylene and specialised compounds for the mobility and energy industries, achieving its current annual production capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of polyolefins.
The Borouge 4 project, which is presently nearing the conclusion of its pre-FEED phase and will complete by 2025, will include a world-scale, mixed feedstock cracker using existing feedstock available in Abu Dhabi, and downstream derivatives units for both polyolefin and non-polyolefin products. Construction has also been approved of a new polypropylene plant based on Borstar, PP5, to be integrated in the Borouge 3 complex. Once completed, it will drive growth in Borouge 1, 2 and 3, and add further value to the surplus propylene available from ADNOC’s new propane dehydrogenation unit.
Ahmed Omar Abdulla, CEO of Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) shared, “We are excited to achieve progress with this mixed feed cracker project which will be a new milestone in the history of Borouge. Having this fourth complex in our world-class petrochemicals complex, in Ruwais, brings us a step closer to achieving our 2030 growth strategy. Not only will the plant contribute to an additional USD 6 billion to Abu Dhabi’s GDP annually as direct benefit from product revenue, our new project will also create thousands of job opportunities during construction phases and once it is commissioned.”
Borouge recently announced that it will significantly increase production of pre-compounded black polyethylene for pressure pipe applications by investing in a production unit which is expected to be completed within 2020. Borouge has an established global track record in providing its customers with advanced plastic pipe solutions with superior processability, performance and quality. The investment will address the rising demand for the materials as many cities in Asia and other growing economies continue to expand and modernise their utilities infrastructure.
As an economic powerhouse, Asia and the Middle East continue to drive Borouge to grow and develop. The emergence of Asia as a hub of urbanisation and home to a rapidly growing middle class presents a wealth of market opportunities.
Thanks to its headquarters in Abu Dhabi and Singapore and a team of experts located across Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Borouge is ideally positioned to capitalise on opportunities in this diverse and booming region.
A mind-set focussed on sustainable innovation enables Borouge to offer solutions based on sound and sustainable principles which benefit industry, the environment and wider society. Borouge’s 2021 Sustainability Goals have largely contributed to increasing the company’s focus on specific drivers of performance and further commitment to its long term social responsibility, environmental stewardship and economic growth in the UAE in line with the UAE's Vision 2021. Along with its strong commitment to support the 3Rs concept of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling plastics, Borouge advocates adopting the plastics circular economy as an innovative driving force to ensure plastics sustainability, so plastics never end up in oceans or landfills, but rather be recycled to have a second chance of life.
Borouge is also putting its technical expertise to work in solving the global water challenge through active involvement in the Water for the World programme. It also supports a range of diverse initiatives, including Waste-free Environment, a massive clean-up effort originally founded by the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA); and the Sustainable Campus Initiative. Borouge has been an active participant in the Responsible Care Global Charter for over a decade.
“Working together to tackle global challenges is the core of our innovation mind-set,” explains Wim Roels, CEO of Borouge Pte Ltd. “We believe it’s not about simply shipping products. It’s about being part of the industries and communities we serve. We want to understand what everybody in that value chain requires, and how Borouge can make it better, more sustainable and more profitable.”
