meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

Borouge awards output capacity expansion contracts

30 April 2025

Abu Dhabi petrochemicals producer Borouge has awarded contracts for projects that will increase its overall production capacity to 6.6 million tonnes a year (t/y) by 2028.

Germany-headquartered Linde Engineering won a contract for front-end engineering and design (feed) services to upgrade Borouge’s second ethane cracker unit (EU2), adding 230,000 t/y of capacity, which is a 15% increase for the EU2 cracker.

Adnoc Gas and Adnoc Refining, subsidiaries of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Group), will supply ethane feedstock for the EU2 upgrade project, with completion scheduled for 2028-end. 

Separately, Borouge has undertaken a project to expand its PE4 and PE5 polyethylene production units, which will increase their nameplate capacity from 540,000 t/y to 700,000 t/y each.

Abu Dhabi’s Target Engineering Construction Company has won the engineering, procurement and construction contract for this project, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027. 

Borouge expects the two output capacity expansion projects to contribute between $165m and $200m in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda).

ALSO READ: Borouge awards hydrogen extraction project contract

Borouge entered operations in 2001, with a production capacity of 450,000 t/y of polyethylene. The Borouge 2 and Borouge 3 expansion projects took the capacity to 2 million t/y and 4.5 million t/y of polyethylene and polypropylene in 2010 and 2014, respectively. 

When the under-construction Borouge 4 complex enters operations, Borouge’s overall production capacity will increase significantly from 5 million t/y to 6.4 million t/y, making it the world’s largest single-site polyolefins facility.

The upcoming Borouge 4 polyolefins complex will feature two polyethylene plants – each with a capacity of 700,000 t/y – using the third generation of Borealis Borstar technology. These plants will be supplied by an ethane cracker with a capacity of more than 1.5 million t/y of ethylene, as well as associated ethylene derivatives.

Following the signing of a final investment decision agreement worth $6.2bn by Adnoc and Borealis in November 2021, Borouge awarded the main EPC contracts for the Borouge 4 project in December of that year.

The EPC packages, the winning contractors, their estimated contract values and a brief scope of work are as follows:

  • Early works (package one) – Al-Asab General Transport & Contracting (UAE) – site preparation and early civil works
  • Ethane cracker (package two) – Technip Energies (France)/Target Engineering (UAE) – $1.58bn – building an ethane cracker with a manufacturing capacity of 1.5 million t/y of ethylene
  • Polymers production (package three) – Tecnimont (Italy) – $1.35bn – building two new polyethylene manufacturing plants and a unit to produce 1-hexene, a component in the production of high-performance polyethylene
  • Utilities and offsites (package four) – Tecnimont (Italy) – $1.5bn – constructing non-process buildings, roads, infrastructure, internal and external interfaces, tankage systems, flaring systems and utilities, as well as integration of Borouge 4 with the existing facilities
  • Second cross-linkable-polyethylene (XLPE) plant (package five) – Tecnimont (Italy) – $350m – building an XLPE plant with a capacity of 100,000 t/y.

Italian contractor Maire Tecnimont executed the front-end engineering and design works for Borouge 4.

Borouge awarded France-based Axens a contract to provide licensed technologies in January 2020. This covered supplying a methyl tertiary butyl ether unit coupled with a 1-butene production unit and 1-hexene unit for the project.

The new Borouge 4 facility will cover an area equivalent to almost 500 football pitches, or more than three times the size of Al-Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi. It will produce enough polyolefins annually to make pipes to supply water to 35 million households.

Borouge Group International

Borouge is the petrochemicals-producing joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Austrian energy company Borealis. Adnoc owns the majority 56% stake in Borouge, with Borealis holding a 34% stake. The remaining 10% of shares in Borouge trade on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange following an initial public offering in June 2022, from which Adnoc Group earned proceeds of $2bn.

In March, Adnoc and Austrian energy company OMV entered into a binding framework agreement to combine their shareholdings in Borouge and Borealis and take control of a greater share of the global chemicals market.

Adnoc has also entered into a share purchase agreement with Canada-based Nova Chemicals Holdings, an indirectly wholly-owned company of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth institution Mubadala Investment Company, for 100% of Nova Chemicals Corporation (Nova).

Adnoc and OMV have also agreed that upon completion of the planned merger of Borouge and Borealis, the new entity – which will be known as Borouge Group International – will acquire Nova for $13.4bn including debt, further expanding its footprint in North America.

Borouge Group International is intended to be headquartered and domiciled in Austria, with regional headquarters in the UAE. In addition, Borouge Group International will hold corporate hubs in Canada’s Calgary, Pittsburgh in the US and Singapore.

The combination of Borouge and Borealis, and the acquisition of Nova, are expected to complete in the first quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, Adnoc said.

The acquisition, together with the contribution of the upcoming Borouge 4 petrochemicals project in Abu Dhabi, will create a major polyolefins producer valued at over $60bn. It will be the world’s fourth-largest by nameplate production, with a potential of 13.6 million metric t/y across 62 plants globally.

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13786125/main.jpg
Indrajit Sen

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • Qiddiya plans $7bn theme park hub near Paris

    25 August 2026

    Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya Investment Company plans to develop a mixed-use leisure destination worth about €6bn ($7bn) at Cergy-Pontoise in the Ile-de-France region, in one of the largest Saudi investments in French tourism infrastructure to date.

    The plan was set out in a joint statement issued on 24 August at the close of a state visit to France by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. France and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) covering the project during the two-day visit.

    The destination will bring together entertainment, leisure, hospitality, culture and sport, according to the joint statement. Current plans envisage up to three major entertainment anchors, hotels and complementary leisure experiences, with the €6bn figure covering the full development lifecycle.

    One of the three parks is expected to be manga-themed, according to the French presidency. The themes of the other two have not been disclosed. The parks will be built and opened in stages, with construction expected to take several years. No opening date has been given.

    The parks are expected to create about 22,000 direct jobs, according to the French presidency, compared with about 20,000 at Disneyland Paris. Cergy-Pontoise lies about 30 kilometres northwest of Paris.

    Qiddiya is a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Its flagship project is a giga-scale entertainment, sports and cultural city on the outskirts of Riyadh, one of several gigaprojects under Vision 2030.

    The theme park plan was among a wider set of agreements reached during the visit. Both sides welcomed the announcement of 21 agreements and MoUs at a French-Saudi investment roundtable, spanning energy, industry, financial services, transport and logistics, health, culture, tourism and artificial intelligence. Bilateral trade reached about $11.8bn in 2025.

    It is not the first time Saudi capital has backed a French theme park. Kingdom Holding Company was a longstanding investor in the operator of Disneyland Paris, first taking a stake in 1994 and participating in successive recapitalisations before Walt Disney Company moved to near-full ownership in 2017.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18987274/main.png
    Colin Foreman
  • Masdar shelves Abu Dhabi green hydrogen project

    25 August 2026

     

    Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has decided to cancel a planned project to build a green hydrogen plant in Abu Dhabi that would have supplied up to 100MW of renewable hydrogen to local steelmaker Emsteel for green steel production.

    After contractors submitted bids for the project last year, Masdar asked bidders in the first quarter of this year to extend the validity of their proposals until the end of August to allow “more time to study and evaluate bids”, according to one source.

    However, Masdar issued a notification to all bidders on 1 August stating that it had decided to cancel the project, sources told MEED.

    Contractors that submitted bids for the Masdar green hydrogen project included:

    • Envision (China)
    • Larsen & Toubro (India)
    • PowerChina (China)
    • Samsung E&A (South Korea)
    • Sinopec (China)

    Masdar did not respond to MEED’s request for comment on the information.

    In its current steelmaking process, Emsteel uses hydrogen produced by steam reforming of natural gas as a reducing agent to extract iron from iron ore. The core objective of Masdar’s planned project was to install a 100MW electrolyser at Emsteel’s main manufacturing hub in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi, to supply green hydrogen for future clean steel production.

    Masdar initiated work on the project in 2024 by awarding a front-end engineering and design (feed) contract to locally based NT Energies, a joint venture of Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy and France-based Technip Energies.

    Masdar then sought proposals last year for engineering, procurement, construction, demolition (if needed for brownfield activities), pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up, and two years of operations and maintenance (extendable up to 20 years) at the planned facility.

    Contractors submitted bids by the end of the year, according to sources.

    The project involved green hydrogen production using alkaline water electrolysis, with a total installed electrolyser capacity of 100MW.

    The scope of work involved building electrolyser stacks and modules, hydrogen separation and compression units, associated utilities and storage systems, and electrical, instrumentation and control systems.

    It also included tie-ins to pre-defined interface points, including (but not limited to):

    • a grid power supply connection to the MOSF substation in Musaffah that exists within the Emsteel complex and is operated by Taqa Transmission
    • a water supply connection to a nearby Taqa Distribution network

    Supporting infrastructure included a substation, a motor control centre, and ancillary plant buildings and facilities.

    Masdar’s planned 100MW electrolyser project at the Emsteel facility would have represented a step up from a previous pilot project by the two Abu Dhabi-owned companies.

    The partners inaugurated a pilot green hydrogen plant at Emsteel’s manufacturing complex in Musaffah in October 2024. It incorporates a 2.1MW electrolyser and is designed to support the production of up to 5,000 tonnes of green steel a year.

    This made Emsteel the only steelmaker in the Middle East to use green hydrogen to produce green steel on a pilot basis.

    “Sustainability is central to Emsteel’s innovation, competitiveness and long-term growth. Today, approximately 89% of our steel business electricity consumption comes from clean sources, and our steel carbon emissions intensity is around 40% lower than the World Steel Association global average,” Michael Rion, chief commercial officer of Emirates Steel, part of Emsteel Group, told MEED in a recent interview.

    READ THE AUGUST 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    Saudi Arabia builds for the global stage; Rising uncertainty creates fresh set of challenges in the Maghreb; Gulf banks remain robust in the face of geopolitical tensions.

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

    > MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb fortunes diverge
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18911651/main0611.jpg
    Indrajit Sen
  • Oman invites bids for Musandam renewables study

    25 August 2026

    Oman’s Nama Power & Water Procurement Company (PWP) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for techno-economic consultancy services to assess the feasibility of renewable energy options in Musandam Governorate.

    The study will examine solar photovoltaic (PV), wind and hybrid renewable energy configurations. It will also assess battery energy storage systems (bess) and other renewable energy and energy storage technologies.

    The consultant will be required to determine which technologies are technically and economically justified for the governorate.

    The bid submission deadline is 24 September.

    The Musandam power system is served primarily by the 123MW Musandam independent power plant (IPP), which began operating in 2017. The governorate has historically relied on small diesel-fired units, but has been seeking to move away from diesel-fired power generation for several years.

    Nama PWP has previously said it was exploring renewable energy options in Musandam to meet future additional capacity requirements.

    Its latest seven-year statement, released in March, forecasts peak electricity demand in Musandam to rise from 91MW in 2024 to 130MW in 2031, an average annual increase of 5%. Average demand is forecast to rise from 52MW to 73MW over the same period.

    The plan says demand growth is being driven by distribution-level load and projects aimed at boosting tourism, economic and commercial activity. 

    Separately, the utility recently invited bids for financial and commercial consultancy services covering three 1GW solar IPPs targeted for commercial operation by the second quarter of 2030.

    The bid submissions deadline is 10 September.

    The three projects covered by the financial and commercial consultancy tender are understood to also be part of the 4GW programme, for which a technical advisory tender was issued on 15 July.

    Bidding for this tender closes on 26 August.

    READ THE AUGUST 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    Saudi Arabia builds for the global stage; Rising uncertainty creates fresh set of challenges in the Maghreb; Gulf banks remain robust in the face of geopolitical tensions.

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

    > MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb fortunes diverge
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18983679/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • US launches sanctions campaign against Iran

    25 August 2026

    The US has launched a sweeping sanctions campaign against Iran and the entities that trade with it, imposing measures on almost 60 individuals, companies and vessels while expanding the reach of secondary sanctions across five sectors of the Iranian economy.

    The campaign, named Operation Economic Outcast, was announced on 24 August by US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who described it as an economic D-Day for Iran. He said Washington’s objective was to sever every economic lifeline sustaining the Iranian regime.

    The treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) issued five sectoral sanctions determinations under Executive Order 13902, covering digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. The determinations allow Ofac to sanction any person operating in those sectors, regardless of location. Washington said Iran uses cryptocurrency for sanctions evasion, seeks advanced technology for its weapons programmes, uses gold to stabilise the rial, and relies on commercial aviation and shipping networks to move fighters, weapons and oil revenue.

    The measures build on earlier determinations targeting Iran’s financial, petroleum and petrochemical sectors.

    Ofac also sanctioned close to 60 entities, individuals and vessels across multiple jurisdictions, including UAE-based entities, over alleged involvement in nuclear and missile procurement, cyber operations and oil revenue networks. The designations named a network of brokers, companies and shadow fleet vessels operating across the UAE, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Switzerland and other regions to transport Iranian oil and channel revenue to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

    Among those designated were shipping brokers and bunkering firms based in the UAE that Washington said facilitated Iranian oil shipments and provided services to sanctioned vessels. The treasury also identified several shadow fleet tankers as blocked property, saying they had moved millions of barrels of Iranian crude and petroleum products, mainly to China.

    Separately, the treasury targeted a procurement network spanning the Middle East and East Asia that it said supported Iran’s acquisition of proliferation-sensitive equipment, along with a cyber group directed by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence & Security.

    Bessent said Washington was pressing governments to shut down Iran-related activity within defined timelines, warning that entities facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion for Iran risked being cut off from the US financial system. He declined to name specific countries.

    The campaign follows the UAE’s own move against Tehran. On 19 August, the UAE suspended all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran with immediate effect, citing regional escalation. The UAE has historically been one of Iran’s most significant trading partners, with much of the relationship built on re-export trade routed through Dubai.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18983152/main.jpg
    Colin Foreman
  • Kuwait tenders $3.3bn gas processing facility

    25 August 2026

     

    State-owned Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) has issued the tender for the development of an onshore gas plant next to the Al-Zour refinery, according to industry sources.

    The project budget is estimated at $3.3bn, and the bid deadline is 29 December, with a meeting for contractors scheduled for 14 September.

    The tender was issued on 23 August.

    The proposed plant will have the capacity to process up to 632 million cubic feet a day of gas and 60,000 b/d a day of condensates from the Dorra offshore field, located in Gulf waters in the Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

    In February, MEED reported that at least seven companies had shown interest in participating in the tender.

    Contractors that sent representatives to previous meetings to discuss the project include:

    • Samsung E&A (South Korea)
    • Larsen & Toubro (India)
    • Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
    • Saipem (Italy)
    • Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
    • Hyundai Engineering Company (South Korea)
    • JGC (Japan)

    The tender process is using a fast-track model, which means that Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders (Capt) will not be involved in the tender process.

    Capt typically reviews the technical and commercial evaluations of bids and verifies that the bidding process is competitive.

    It is understood that not requiring Capt to approve this tender is expected to speed up the tender process.

    Iran disputes ownership of the field, referring to it as Arash.

    Iran claims the field partially extends into Iranian territory and asserts that Tehran should be a stakeholder in its development.

    The Dorra field’s close proximity to Iran could make development difficult due to current security concerns.

    The offshore elements of the wider Dorra field development project are expected to be especially difficult to protect from attacks from Iran.

    Earlier this month, MEED revealed that Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) had selected contractors for two major offshore packages under the Dorra field facilities development project.

    KJO, which is jointly owned by Aramco subsidiary Aramco Gulf Operations Company and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation subsidiary KGOC, has divided the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) scope for the Dorra gas production project into four packages: three offshore and one onshore.

    US-based McDermott International has secured offshore package 2A, valued at about $1.5bn, according to sources.

    A consortium of India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH) and Italian contractor Saipem has secured package 2B, sources told MEED.

    Estimated at about $3.7bn, package 2B is the largest of the three offshore EPC packages under the Dorra field facilities project.

    MEED reported in March that the LTEH/Saipem consortium had emerged as the lowest bidder for offshore package 2B.

    Contractors submitted bids for offshore packages 2A and 2B by the 9 March deadline, MEED previously reported. Bid validity was understood to expire on 15 August, prompting KJO to issue letters of intent to the selected contractors earlier this month, sources said.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18964461/main.png
    Wil Crisp