UAE’s ADNOC $45bn plan to upgrade, expand Ruwais site

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Sunday said that it is planning to invest United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) 165bn ($45bn) alongside partners to build a new refinery, cracker and downstream petrochemical units at its Ruwais site.

“Plans are well advanced to expand the complex’s refining capacity by more than 65%, or 600,000 bpd by 2025, through the addition of a third, new refinery, creating a total capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day (mbpd),” the company said in a statement.

The $45bn expansion project will also include a plan to build “one of the worlds’ largest mixed feed crackers which will triple ADNOC’s production capacity to 14.4m tonnes/year by 2025 from 4.5m tonnes/year in 2016,” the company said.

“The entire Ruwais complex will be upgraded to dramatically increase its flexibility and integrated capabilities to produce greater volumes of higher-value petrochemicals and derivative products,” the company said.

ADNOC will also develop a new, large-scale, manufacturing ecosystem in Ruwais through the creation of new petrochemical Derivatives and Conversion Parks, it said.

ADNOC’s existing and sizeable downstream portfolio comprises eight companies processing 10.5bn standard cubic feet (scf) of gas per day, and with a refining capacity of 922,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensate and crude.

The company produces some 40m tonnes per year (mtpa) of refined products, and a range of other products, including granulated urea, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, gasoline, jet fuel, gas oil and base oils, fuel oil, and other petrochemical feedstock.