Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and India’s Reliance Industries (RIL) plan to jointly explore production of ethylene dichloride (EDC) in a new facility that would be built adjacent to the United Arab Emirates-based oil and petrochemicals producer’s refinery complex at Ruwais in Abu Dhabi.

The companies said the new cooperation would enhance their existing relationship while supporting future collaboration in petrochemicals and would have advantages for both sides.

Reliance would provide operational knowhow for the EDC plant, with ADNOC supplying ethylene. The Abu Dhabi oil giant would gain indirect access to the Indian PVC market and the Indian company would benefit from the “world-class infrastructure” at Ruwais, where ADNOC and Vienna-based olefins and polyolefins producer Borealis operate the Borouge joint venture.

This would be RIL’s third major link-up with a global energy company so far in this year. In August, it announced a joint venture for its fuel retail business with BP and sale of a 25% stake in its oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco.

Abdulaziz Alhajri, CEO of Borouge, said the agreement with Reliance is a product of a strong relationship spanning more than two decades and a testament to ADNOC’s continued ability to cultivate smart and mutually beneficial international partnerships.

Alhajri said ADNOC, will “work closely with RIL to identify opportunities to capitalize on the strengths of the Ruwais ecosystem, while delivering a compelling new commercial platform for satisfying the large Indian PVC market.”

Nikhil Meswani, executive director of Reliance, said the company’s “significant step toward backward integration will pave the way for enhancing PVC capacity in India to cater to the fast growing domestic market.”