Chemicals complex elevates emirate

A massive chemicals complex under development in Taweelah will transform Abu Dhabi into one of the world’s largest chemicals producers, a key step in the emirate’s diversification efforts, executives in the project say.

The first stage of the Chemicals Industrial City will come online in 2014, the same year as a major plastics complex in Ruwais.

At that point, the emirate could have a more sophisticated chemicals capability than Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), the region’s leader, said Mark Garrett, the chief executive of Borealis, an Austrian chemicals firm majority-owned by the Government’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).