Borouge and Borealis celebrate five years of production in the UAE

18.01.2007

Borouge and Borealis, the leading providers of innovative, value creating plastics solutions in the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe, celebrated Borouge’s fifth year of production.

Chief Executive Officer of the Borouge Production Company, Harri Bucht said that the five year production milestone at Borouge’s plant in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi is an extraordinary success for a facility conceived so recently, and represents a major achievement for the polyolefins industry in the Middle East as a whole.

A total of around 2.3 million tonnes of polyethylene (PE) have been produced by Borouge, providing innovative solutions for customers in the infrastructure, automotive and advanced packaging sectors. To date, enough PE for pipe applications has been made at Ruwais to stretch a typical 110 millimetre diameter water pipe six times round the world.

The Ruwais complex was the first bimodal PE unit in the Middle East, beginning production December 2001 and exceeding design capacity within five months. ISO 9001 certification was achieved after just nine months and since then, Borouge has become a benchmark for operational excellence in the region. It has been at the forefront of adopting best practice in health, safety and environment, achieving ISO 14001 certification in December 2006.

‘Borouge 2’, the multi-billion dollar expansion of its production facilities will come on stream in 2010 and commenced last month with the signing of an agreement with Linde Engineering to build a new ethylene cracker. This world-scale project will triple existing production capacity to two million tonnes per annum, including, for the first time, polypropylene. This increased output will open new markets for Borouge and is expected to make a strong contribution to the growth of downstream industries in Abu Dhabi and the wider region.

Harald Hammer, Chief Executive Officer of the Borouge Marketing Company commented: “Five years of production is a major achievement for Borouge. It underlines the extraordinary progress that has been made since our inception so recently. Our next phase of expansion will ensure we continue to make a difference to our customers and better serve our growing markets in the Middle East and Asia Pacific.”

For further information, please contact:

John Webster
Group Communications Manager, Borouge
+65 63 11 42 66
john.webster@borouge.com

Craig Halgreen
Group Communications Director, Borealis
+43 122 400 334
lypresbo@borealisgroup.com

Borealis is a leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions. With more than 40 years of experience in the polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) business, we focus on pipe systems, energy and communications cables, automotive and advanced packaging markets. Our technology shapes plastic products that make an essential contribution to the society in which we live. We are committed to lead the way in ‘Shaping the Future with Plastics.

Borouge is a leading provider of innovative plastics solutions. With a heritage of reliable customer partnership and value creation through innovation, Borouge is a unique company that brings together the very best of Europe and the Middle East. Established in 1998 as a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), a major Gulf oil company, and Borealis, a pre-eminent European plastics provider, Borouge is a groundbreaking international partnership delivering innovative plastics solutions to customers throughout the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Africa. Borouge’s state-of-the-art petrochemical complex is located at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Learn more about Borouge at www.borouge.com

Borouge and Borealis employ unique Borstar® technology to produce differentiated products for high-value infrastructure (water, gas and industrial pipe systems, power and communication cables), automotive and advanced packaging.