Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), and its project partner Cepsa have announced that they have awarded its front-end engineering design (Feed) contract to Técnicas Reunidas, a Spanish engineering company.
Adnoc and Cepsa are moving forward with plans to develop a world-scale Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant in the Ruwais Derivatives Park and the plant will be the first of the derivative units to be advanced under Adnoc’s $45 billion Ruwais downstream investment programme.
The Feed contract is a key milestone in the development of the LAB project and is the third Adnoc contract to be secured by Técnicas Reunidas this year. The LAB project will be jointly operated by Adnoc and Cepsa, a Spanish global integrated energy company and a wholly-owned unit of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company. It also has more than five decades of experience in LAB.
Abdulla Ateya Al Messabi, Refining & Petrochemicals business unit manager at Adnoc said: “The LAB plant will be a key component of Adnoc’s plans to develop a new, large-scale, manufacturing ecosystem in Ruwais through the creation of the Ruwais Derivatives Park.”
“The park will act as a prime catalyst for the next stage of Adnoc’s petrochemical transformation by inviting partners to invest and produce new products and solutions from the growing range of feedstocks that are available in Ruwais. This will enable the creation of numerous new petrochemical activities and value chains,” he stated.
Miguel Paradinas, deputy CEO of Técnicas Reunidas, said: “This award supports our strategy to deliver value-added services in projects involving technologies in line with TR know-how and experience. It also reinforces our relationship with two priority TR clients, Adnoc and Cepsa, and consolidates our position in a strategic country where we have been working continuously for the past ten years.”
José Manuel Martínez, Cepsa´s head of Chemicals, said that the Feed contract is a significant milestone in their company’s relationship with Adnoc with whom they are working on numerous projects in the upstream, downstream and petrochemical sectors.
The press release also stated that LAB is the most common raw material in the manufacture of biodegradable household and industrial detergents. It is also used in house cleaners, fabric softeners and soap bars. The main feedstock for the LAB complex will be straight-run Kerosene and other streams that are by-products from Adnoc Refining’s operations in Ruwais. When the new plant comes on stream, it will produce 225,000 metric tons per annum (MTPA) of Normal Paraffins (NP) and 150,000 MTPA of LAB.
