Low profit margins for refineries producing naphtha, a key petrochemicals feedstock, are driving major chemicals projects in the UAE.
The price of naphtha, the lightest and most versatile refined oil product, usually commands a respectable premium over crude. But the price gap shrank during the recession and could narrow again due to a forecast increase in global naphtha supplies.
"That means we need to upgrade naphtha into petrochemicals," Oliver Habibe, a technical adviser to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), told a conference yesterday in Abu Dhabi.
Jasem al Sayegh, the general manager of ADNOC's refining unit Takreer, said the integration of Abu Dhabi's biggest refinery with petrochemicals plants in the emirate was one of the strategic objectives of its US$9.6bn (Dh35.26bn) refinery expansion at Ruwais.
He said the project would also enable Abu Dhabi to satisfy its growing domestic demand for oil products and increase its presence in international markets for products such as petrol and diesel while creating employment for qualified Emiratis.
Amid a global downturn in petroleum refining, Takreer last November awarded the main contracts for the Ruwais expansion to four South Korean firms. The expansion will more than double the refinery's oil processing capacity to 817,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 400,000 bpd.
The contractors, Samsung Engineering, GS Engineering and Construction, SK Engineering and Construction and Daewoo Engineering and Construction, were chosen for their ability to optimise refinery-petrochemicals integration, Mr al Sayegh said.
The refinery expansion is scheduled for completion by the end of 2013 and to come on stream in early 2014, by which time Abu Dhabi will have more than 900,000 bpd of total refining capacity.
The project is expected to increase Abu Dhabi's naphtha surplus by 50 per cent. About half of that would be piped to Taweelah, the site of a chemicals complex that the government-owned Abu Dhabi National Chemicals Company, or Chemaweyaat, aims to complete by 2014.
Including additional refining projects under development in Fujairah and Pakistan, the total capacity for refined oil products controlled by the Abu Dhabi Government would swell by 90 per cent between next year and 2015, from 20 million tonnes to 38 million tonnes per year, Mr Habibe forecast.
The developments come as the two top OPEC oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are also aggressively expanding refining capacity.
Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are doing so for similar reasons: both expect domestic demand for transportation fuels to rise sharply in coming years, exceeding their current output capacities. Both are also pursuing gas development to address domestic shortages. That will increase their production of gas condensate, a type of light oil that is high in naphtha and requires refining.
Iran's rush to build oil refineries is spurred by the country's shortages of transportation and heating fuels and by the threat of new sanctions over its nuclear programme. The sanctions would aim to choke off imports of oil products.
Mr Habibe predicted that ADNOC's output of natural gas liquids, including condensate, would increase by more than 50 per cent to surpass 18 million tonnes in 2015 from less than 12 million tonnes this year.
ADNOC's gas production also supplies gas liquids such as ethane and propane that are the feedstocks for a large petrochemicals complex at Ruwais. Abu Dhabi Polymers Company, or Borouge, which ADNOC controls, owns the facilities and is expanding them in a multiphase project.
@Email:tcarlisle@thenational.ae
Pari
Produced by: Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma, Karnesh Sharma) & KriArj Entertainment
Director: Prosit Roy
Starring: Anushka Sharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Rajat Kapoor, Mansi Multani
Three stars
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Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The Vines - In Miracle Land
Two stars
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
Upcoming games
SUNDAY
Brighton and Hove Albion v Southampton (5.30pm)
Leicester City v Everton (8pm)
MONDAY
Burnley v Newcastle United (midnight)
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.