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Front-end engineering and design (feed) contracts have been awarded for three chemicals production plants that will be built in the Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone in Abu Dhabi’s Ruwais.

Germany-headquartered Thyssenkrupp Uhde has won feed contracts for an ethylene dichloride (EDC) plant and a chlor-alkali plant, according to sources.

France-based Technip Energies has won the feed contract for a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) facility, sources told MEED.

The three planned chemicals plants are part of a scheme known as Project Salt. It is among the main investments in the first phase of development for the upcoming petrochemicals derivatives complex by Taziz.

Taziz – a 60:40 joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Abu Dhabi’s industrial holding company ADQ – first announced the EDC, chlor-alkali and PVC plants in December 2021. India’s Reliance Industries was named as the main investor in the chemicals plants at the time.

Reliance is understood to have pulled out of Project Salt and has been replaced by France-based Kem One, the sources further said.

Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone

Since 2021, Taziz has attracted investments from several foreign investors for its planned chemicals projects in the under-construction Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone in Ruwais.

In addition to the three chemicals plants planned under Project Salt, a joint venture of UAE-based Fertiglobe, South Korea’s GS Energy Corporation (GS Energy) and Japanese investment firm Mitsui & Company (Mitsui) have invested in a “world-scale” blue ammonia production facility in the Ruwais derivatives complex.

The joint venture recently awarded the construction contract for the 1 million-tonnes-a-year blue ammonia facility to Tecnimont, after having awarded the engineering and procurement contract to the Italian contractor in February last year.

Separately, Taziz and Switzerland-based energy and chemicals company Proman also signed a shareholder agreement for a planned methanol project in January last year. The two companies initially announced the planned project in March 2022.

MEED recently reported that contractors were preparing technical bids for the planned methanol plant, which will be the UAE’s first. The projected production capacity of the methanol complex is 5,000 metric tonnes a day, or 1.8 million metric tonnes a year.

In December 2021, Taziz secured agreements from eight UAE-based entities for investments in its planned chemicals projects in Ruwais. The agreements marked the first domestic public-private partnership in Abu Dhabi’s downstream oil and gas and petrochemicals sector.

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Regarding infrastructure to support units in the chemicals production zone, Adnoc has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) to develop a cogeneration power facility in Ruwais.

Separately, Netherlands-based VTTI has recently received commercial bids from contractors for a project to build a chemicals handling and export terminal at the Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone – a scheme known as Project Landing.

Taziz has planned seven petrochemicals derivatives projects as part of the first phase of its industrial chemicals zone, which are:

Chemicals production is a priority sector for Operation 300bn, the UAE’s industrial growth strategy.

The industrial strategy is being overseen by the Industry & Advanced Technology Ministry, which aims to raise the UAE industrial sector’s contribution to the national GDP to AED300bn ($81.7bn) by 2031.

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