Indorama’s $1.5-bln fertilizer plant, port terminal, gas pipeline set for inauguration

After 36 months of construction work, surmounting various challenges, Indorama group in Nigeria is set to inaugurate what would be the world’s largest single-line gas-to-power Urea fertilizer plant, with capacity for 1.4 million metric tonnes of Urea fertilizer per annum.

Also to be commissioned is an 84-kilometer gas pipeline to supply feedstock to the plant, and a port terminal at Onne Port Complex, near Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

According to Manish Mundra, the managing director and chief executive officer of Indorama Nigeria, the three mega projects have jointly gulped $1.5 billion as of date.

Speaking in the latest edition of  Indorama’s in-house journal, ‘Impact’ magazine, the MD/CEO described the projects of having great socio-economic potentials for Nigeria; adding that fertilizer is a highly needed product in Nigeria, yet over the years, the Nigerian government spends huge foreign exchange importing fertilizers for farmers.

Mundra said, now Indorama has filled the fertilizer gap, and would be producing and supplying farmers across the country with 400,000 metric tonnes of high quality fertilizers, and would be exporting about 1 million tonnes of fertilizers to different parts of the world.

By so doing, he said the company would make Nigeria a net exporter of fertilizers, and put the country on the world fertilizer map.

He informed that through the feat of exporting at least 1 million tonnes of fertilizer, Nigeria would earn about $1 billion, which would be added to its gross domestic product (GDP).

Construction works on the Indorama three projects, the Indorama Eleme Fertilizer plant, the port terminal at Onne Port Complex and an 84-kilometer gas pipeline started in 2013, with a completion target date of first quarter of this year – Q1 2016.

The fertilizer plant includes 4,000 metric tonnes per day (MTPD) Urea plant; 2,300 MTPD Ammonia plant; 4,000 MTPD Urea granulation plant with associated offsite facilities and utilities including water, gas and power.

Meanwhile, the Indorama Nigeria MD/CEO said the first set of 30 young Nigerian engineers have been trained in India to compliment the expatriates in running the plant efficiently.

The Indorama-OIS port terminal at Onne Port has state-of-the-art facilities for exporting dry bulk Urea fertilizer, as well as serve for import and export of various types of break-bulk and containerized cargo. The terminal comprises marine facility of 320 meters quay to handle vessels ranging from 5,000 dwt (deadweight) to 35,000 dwt and 6.20 hectares of land terminal facility catering to handling and storage of dry bulk Urea, break-bulk cargo and containerized cargo.

 

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