Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Spanish oil company Cepsa have signed a pact to build a new Linear Alkylbenzene (LAB) facility at the former’s Ruwais refining and petrochemicals complex in UAE.
Image: Signing of the project development agreement between CEPSA and ADNOC. Photo: courtesy of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The project development agreement signed by the two parties follows their November 2017 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which was inked to assess the feasibility of establishing the LAB facility in Ruwais.
The LAB project is now all set to enter into the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) stage following the completion of the feasibility study.
The new facility in the petrochemical complex will be designed to have an annual production capacity of 150,000 tons of LAB, a common raw material used for manufacturing biodegradable household and industrial detergents apart from being used in house cleaners and soap bars.
Cepsa, which is owned by Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment, is expected to offer its market experience and technology related to LAB to provide the ideal raw material consumption ratios, said ADNOC.
Cepsa CEO Pedro Miró said: “The start-up of this complex underscores our commitment to continue developing our international operations as part of our integrated business model.
“We are delighted with our collaboration with ADNOC across several of our businesses (Chemicals, E&P, Trading), and we are convinced that the future will bring us further opportunities to grow together.”
The new manufacturing plant will be integrated fully inside the ADNOC Refining complex. It will take kerosene and benzene as feedstocks and will utilize the suite of utilities and services offered by the Ruwais complex.
The LAB project is one of the initiatives announced by ADNOC, to help it enhance and grow its refining operations and capabilities significantly. It is part of the AED165bn ($45bn) investment committed by the UAE’s state owned oil company in its downstream business over the next five years.
ADNOC downstream director Abdulaziz Al Hajri said: “As we expand downstream and grow our refining capacity and capabilities, we will be able to expand the number of new products and value chains we can create.
“The development of a new LAB facility will enable the emergence of a surfactants cluster in our new Ruwais Derivatives and Conversion Parks, diversifying the number and type of industries being developed there, leading to the creation of an expanded and advanced petrochemicals ecosystem in the UAE.”