Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is aiming to more than double its production of petrochemicals by 2025 and boost gasoline output.

Adnoc says it will make significant investments in new downstream and petrochemicals projects as part of its ‘2030 Strategy’.

The new projects will focus on gasoline and aromatics production and additional polyolefins capacity as the company targets growing domestic and international demand. Adnoc says petrochemicals demand in Asia is set to double by 2030.

The firm aims to increase petrochemicals production capacity to 11.4 million tonnes a year (t/y) in 2025 from the current 4.5 million t/y. New capacity will come from a “new world-scale mixed feed liquid cracker”, according to Adnoc.

The company says gasoline production will be increased to 10.2 million t/y by 2022 to maintain local self-sufficiency.

“Adnoc’s ultimate goal is unlocking the full potential of our assets. So we are pursuing profitable and integrated growth in refining and petrochemicals,” says Abdulaziz Abdulla Alhajri, the company’s refining and petrochemicals director .

“We are also diversifying our product portfolio to make us more resilient to economic cycles and oil price fluctuations,” he adds.

In July, MEED revealed that Abu Dhabi had put on hold its only major petrochemicals project to build an aromatics plant in Ruwais that would be majority owned by International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic).

Ruwais-based Borouge operates the majority of the emirate’s existing petrochemicals capacity, largely focused on producing polyolefins using ethane gas feedstock.

It is unclear whether Abu Dhabi intends to expand Borouge, revive the Ipic project, invest in schemes under new entities or pursue a combination of several projects to meet its 2025 target.