Jul 3, 2009 (WAM)--Borouge, a leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions, has awarded a contract worth US$ 1.075 billion to The Linde Group, a world leading gases and engineering company, to build another 1.5 million tonnes per year (t/y) ethane cracker at its production site in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. "The awarding of this contract confirms Borouge's commitment to the Borouge 3 project, a major expansion of our production facility in Ruwais, which will increase the total capacity of the plant to 4.5 million tonnes of polyolefins annually by the end of 2013," said Abdul Aziz Alhajri, CEO of Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge). "In addition to the ethane cracker, the expansion includes the construction of second generation Borstar polypropylene and polyethylene units, a low density polyethylene unit and a Butene unit, as well as related off-site utilities and marine facilities.

" "Nowhere else in the world has a petrochemical company installed so much olefins capacity in such a short time as Borouge is currently doing in Abu Dhabi," says Dr Aldo Belloni, member of the Executive Board of Linde AG. "We at Linde Engineering are proud to be the supplier of ethylene technology for the Ruwais complex. Our relationship with ADNOC, enriched by our gases joint venture ?Elixier?, and Borealis is now stronger than ever, thus making The Linde Group the leading gases and engineering company in the Middle East." The contract will be executed on a ?lump sum turnkey' basis whereby the construction work will be executed by the Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). The new cracker, the third of its kind to be built by The Linde Group for Borouge in one decade, complements the 600,000 t/y and 1.5 million t/y ethane crackers, the latter of which is currently under construction as part of the plant's expansion from 600,000 to 2 million t/y of polyolefins by mid-2010, and ultimately 4.5 million tonnes of polyolefins annually by 2013.

After completion of the new cracker, Borouge will have the world's largest ethane cracker complex, setting a new benchmark for the industry. Borouge is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, and Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions. The awarding of the contract is a major milestone in the Company's growth strategy in the infrastructure, automotive and advanced packaging markets in the Middle East and Asia, and is an important step in the development of the Abu Dhabi petrochemicals landscape.