Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) plans to start commissioning its new $5bn Ruwais plastics production complex in May, with production due to start in the third quarter of the year, sources close to the project tell MEED.

The complex, known as Borouge 2, has been under construction since 2007, and will boost Borouge’s total plastics output to 2 million tonnes a year (t/y) from current levels of around 650,000 t/y.

It consists of a 1.5 million t/y cracker, which converts the natural gas ethane into the basic chemical ethylene, and one of the world’s biggest olefins conversion units, which converts ethylene into the chemicals propylene and butane. Plastics will be produced at two 225,000 t/y polyethylene plants and a 752,000 t/y polypropylene plant.

Borouge plans to start turning each plant on in sequence in May, and hopes to reach full production by June or July, several senior sources working on the construction and commissioning of the project tell MEED.

However, this schedule may be subject to change as construction has not been completed on every part of the complex, one senior project manager says.

Borouge awarded a series of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and project management consultancy (PMC) contracts to build and oversee the construction of the facilities in 2007. A consortium of Germany’s Linde and Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company won the $1.3bn deal to build the cracker, while South Korea’s Samsung Engineering won the $300m contract to build the olefins conversion unit.

Italy’s Tecnimont was awarded the $1.8bn EPC contract for the polyethylene and polypropylene units, and Spain’s TR won a $1.2bn deal for the supporting offsites and utilities at the 260 hectare complex. The US’ Foster Wheeler is the main PMC overseeing the entire project.

Sources close to the project say the overall cost of the project is close to $5bn.

Borouge declined to comment on an exact start-up date for the complex. “Borouge 2 is made up of several parts that will be commissioned during the middle of the year,” says Craig Halgreen, vice-president for global communications at Borouge. “There are no specifics to report.”

The company is currently in the process of tendering deals on a third petrochemicals complex, Borouge 3. MEED reported in February that Borouge is considering building a fourth plant, with a feasibility study due to be launched in 2011 (MEED 3:2:2010).

Analyst are wary of the prospects of new addition to petrochemicals capacity in the region given a global oversupply of plastics and chemicals (MEED 6:11:2009).