ABU DHABI - Equity In Borealis.

Under a series of deals signed on Sept. 15, 1997, OMV sold its 100%-owned PCD Polymere to Borealis of Copenhagen, a 50-50 venture between Statoil of Norway and Neste Oy of Finland created in 1994. This made Borealis the second largest producer of polyolefins in Europe and put it on a level with Dow Chemical and Montell in the industry's global rankings, with ExxonMobil in the lead.

In return for PCD Polymere, OMV got 25% in Borealis and IPIC obtained the other 25% of Neste's equity for cash. The new Borealis ownership structure was completed on May 4, 1998.

PCD Polymere's plants in Austria and southern Germany raised Borealis' polyolefins capacity by more than 900,000 tons/year to well over 3 million tons per annum. Borealis has large plants in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Portugal and smaller plants in Germany and France.

Borealis has 40% equity in Abu Dhabi Polymers (Borouge), with ADNOC holding 60%, which has a complex at Ruwais on stream since December 2001 with a capacity of 600,000 t/y of ethylene 225,000 t/y of HDPE and 225,000 t/y of LLDPE. Having provided its Borstar technology to the latter two units Borealis now is marketing Ruwais PEs in Europe through its network there. This marketing strength is shortly to be used further as Borouge's capacity has been expanded.

Phase-2 at Borouge is increasing the PE production capacity by 130,000 t/y from later this month through debottlenecking work by Tecnimont under a $40m EPC contract. Phase-3 will involve a 1.4 million t/y ethane cracker and several downstream units. In addition to a planned 540,000 t/y PE unit, Borouge is mulling options for two 400,000 t/y polypropylene (PP) plants, all using the Borstar technology. Now Borouge is seeking a financial adviser for Phase-3 (see Vol. 63, down24cDec13-04).

Asian PE imports are expected to rise from 12.8m t/y in 2000 to 20m t/y this year. Singapore-based Borouge Pte is a second ADNOC-Borealis venture which is marketing Ruwais PEs in Asia. It has marketing and sales offices in Hong Kong, Mumbai and Abu Dhabi, with plans to open offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Chenai. It is to have offices in the Eastern Mediterranean.