Yara Formed Joint-Venture with NOC Fertiliser

Norway’s Yara has signed major agreements with National Oil Corp (NOC) and the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) to form a joint venture for the production and marketing of mineral fertilizers

The JV comprise of 50% stake by Yara and remaining owned by LIA and NOC. The JV was setup to upgrade existing ammonia and urea production plants with capacity of approximately 700,000 tonnes/year of ammonia and 900,000 tonnes/year of urea located at Marsa el-Brega and additional new fertilizer plants.

Russia's Sakhalin plans methanol, ammonia plants

New methanol and ammonia production facilities are planned to be built in Russia's Sakhalin region. Feedstock for the methanol and ammonia complex would come from natural gas deposits in northern Sakhalin.

This is shortafter announcement that Russia's Yakutiya region plans to build two facilities for $1 billion to produce 450,000 tonnes/year of methanol and 200,000 tonnes/year of ammonia by 2012.

Oman and India Collaborating on Urea/Ammonia Plant

Despite their differences, India and Oman are planning to build a fertilizer plant comprising urea and ammonia plants at Sur in northeast Oman. The capacity of the facility will be able to produce 1.65m tonnes/year of urea and 248,000 tonnes/year of ammonia with total cost of the project amounting at $1bn.

Analysts puts the deal as "opportunity give-away" since the abundance of feedstock in Oman.

Algeria to Start Ammonia Plant

Fertiberia, a Spanish fertilizer producer is in the midst of selecting a contractor to build an ammonia plant in Algeria with a capacity to produce 1.2m tonnes/year of ammonia with due completion in 2011. Fertiberia has already entered Algeria market with collaboration with Fertial, an Algerian ammonia producer with 650,000 tonnes per annum of ammonia at Annaba and Arzew. The facility will utilised Sonatrach gas as a supply feedstock to the plant.

New Fertilizer Plant in Inner Mongolia, China

China is planning another new fertilizer plant in central Mongolia by Yunnan Yuntianhua company of China. The fertilizer facility is expected to produce 500 ktpa ammonia and 800 ktpa urea capacity with total investment cost of $480 million. The project will utilize rich coal reserves as feedstock for the plant.

The company will be a join venture between Hong Kong's Jinxin Group and Yuntianhua 51% stake. The fertilizer complex capacity will eventually be increased into 2 mil tonnes per year of ammonia and 3.2 mil tonnes of urea.