Borouge 1 came on stream in December 2001. It cost $1.2bn to build and comprised a 600,000-tonne-a-year (t/y) ethylene plant, built by the US’ Bechtel and Germany’s Linde, and two 225,000-t/y polyethylene units, constructed by Italy’s Tecnimont. A $40m debottlenecking project in 2005 increased its polyethylene capacity to 580,000 t/y.

Work on the $4.5bn Borouge 2 project was completed in 2010. It comprises a 1.4 million-t/y ethane cracker, a 540,000-t/y polyethylene unit and two 400,000-t/y polypropylene units.  

Planning for Borouge 3 began in mid-2009. It took the site’s capacity to 4.5 million t/y and included one of the biggest ethane crackers of its kind in the world. The 1.5 million-t/y cracker was built by Germany’s Linde under a $1.07bn contract.

Further upgrades are planned. These include a debottlenecking project across the three facilities and the construction of another polyethylene plant.

Abu Dhabi Polymers Company is a joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Borealis of Austria. Its annual turnover in 2015 was $4bn, according to the UAE-headquartered Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association.