Ruwais

The Ruwais Fractionation Plant is an integral and major part of the Ruwais Industrial Complex and plays a very important part in the Abu Dhabi Onshore Hydrocarbon Chain. The Ruwais Plant receives its feedstock from GASCO’s NGL extraction plants, at Asab, Bu Hasa, Habshan and Bab, as well as LPG from the neighboring TAKREER (Abu Dhabi Refinery Company) refinery. The plant, which can process 23,370 tonnes per day ( 7.8 million tonnes per year) of NGL , has two parallel fractionation trains, storage facilities and a loading jetty to export propane, butane and Paraffinic Naphtha.

The NGL feed is fractionated into four products: ethane (C2), propane (C3), butane (C4) and Paraffinic Naphtha (C5+). Ethane is exported to the neighboring petrochemical plant of Borouge for the production of ethylene. The other three products are stored at Ruwais before transfer via the GASCO Ruwais jetty to gas carriers or via the refinery jetty to Paraffinic Naphtha tankers and shipped to markets worldwide.

In April 2009, Ruwais achieved the milestone of 4,000 ships with more than 115 million tonnes of marketable product loaded for export since the Ruwais plant started up in 1981.

The major developments undertaken at Habshan and Asab (Habshan-3 and Asab-2 projects) will lead to a dramatic increase of the NGL quantities to be processed at Ruwais. To cater for these additional requirements, a 3rd NGL fractionation train with a capacity of 24,400 tonnes per day is being constructed which nearing completion and planned for start-up 3rd Quarter 2009, thus doubling the Ruwais plant capacity.

The Sulphur Granulation and Loading terminal in Ruwais will be taken over by GASCO Ruwais in May 2009 as most of the Sulphur handled there is from GASCO Habshan Plant.