Abu Dhabi National Chemicals Company (Chemaweyaat) has decided to move all of its planned joint venture petrochemicals complexes to Abu Dhabi’s Western Region, abandoning plans to develop units at Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone (KPIZ) in the north of the emirate towards the border with Dubai.

MEED reported in June that Chemaweyaat, a joint venture of government-backed fund International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), planned to move 11 of 12 planned complexes to a new site, Ras Al-Dhbaiah, next to the industrial port of Ruwais.

The company’s first project, a $10bn joint venture complex to be developed by a wholly owned subsidiary, Abu Dhabi Chemicals Integration Company (Tacaamol), was be built at KPIZ, within the  newly named Madeenat Chemaweyaat – Taweelah.

Chemaweyaat was formed in 2008 to develop a series of new petrochemicals plants in the emirate with local and international partners at a cost of up to $70bn.

The company, a 40:40:20 joint venture of International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), Abu Dhabi Investment Council (Adic) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has only announced plans to build the industrial city to support its planned projects, Madeenat Chemaweyaat, at KPIZ to date.

Firms in talks with Ipic and Chemaweyaat over developing the Tacaamol project now say that the partners no longer plan to develop anything at the KPIZ site and will build all of their projects in the Western Region.

Chemaweyaat no longer refers in its literature to either Madeenat Chemaweyaat – Taweelah or Madeenat Chemaweyaat Ras Al-Dhbaiah, the industrial cities planned to house its projects. It only refers to a single site in the Western Region, now named Madeenat Chemaweyaat, Al-Gharbia.

Chemaweyaat declined to comment on the decision to move the development to the Western Region. The Al-Gharbia name, which is used to describe the Western Region by the government of Abu Dhabi, is not necessarily the final label for the new site, a company spokesman says.

The decision to build the complex next to Ruwais, which sites the majority of the production facilities owned by state refiner Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer), will make the project more feasible, engineering executives say.

“If they built it in Taweelah, they would have needed to build a giant pipeline for the [feedstock] naphtha for the plant,” says one executive. “This will make it cheaper, easier to operate and in general will allow for quicker integration and addition of new facilities.”