Category: Middle East

The first global review of phosphate rock resources since 2010 has reported that technically recoverable reserves should last for more than 300 years.

Bedeschi has been awarded a contract by Tecnicas Reunidas and Wison Engineering for the engineering and supply of new sulphur-handling equipment. Tecnicas Reunidas and Wison Engineering are working in a 70-30 joint venture partnership on the North Field Expansion Project (NFXP) Sulphur Project, which forms part of the overall Qatar North Field Expansion Project. Last year were awarded a $600 million contract to process and export sulphur from the projected expansion of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City. The new sulphur plant will have the capacity to process an average of 5,000 t/d of molten sulphur.

Mining major Anglo American is to invest up to $4 billion to complete its Wood-smith mine project in the UK.

Arafura Rare Earths Ltd has awarded Worley subsidiary Chemetics Inc the contract to install Chemetics CORE-SO2™ sulphuric acid technology at its Nolans Project in the Northern Territory of Australia. The scope of the contract is to deliver the detailed engineering and supply of the sulphuric acid plant plus associated oxygen plant on a lump sum basis. The acid plant at Arafura’s Nolans Project will be designed to meet future emission performance and clean energy transition goals, utilising CORE-SO2’s high turndown capability and the potential to idle the plant while keeping the catalyst warm for extended periods of time, allowing the acid plant to operate with 95% reduced SO 2 emissions when compared to traditional double contact double absorption (DCDA) plants. High pressure steam production within the process will allow CO 2 - free electrical power to be generated. By removing the use of a diesel or natural gas start-up burner, further greenhouse gas emissions will be prevented.

CRU, a leader in sulphur industry market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events, and Abu Dhabi-based UniverSUL Consulting LLC, dedicated to providing unbiased technical expertise in sour hydrocarbon production and sulphur recovery, have announced a formal partnership aimed at enhancing the value of industry events for the sulphur industry.

BASF says that its high-pressure regenerative CO2 capture technology HiPACT ® , codeveloped by BASF and engineering partner JGC Corporation will be used by INPEX, one of Japan’s largest exploration and production companies, in its Kashiwazaki Clean Hydrogen/Ammonia Project. This is Japan’s first demonstration project for the production of blue hydrogen/ammonia from domestically produced natural gas, the consistent implementation of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in domestic depleted gas fields and the use of hydrogen for power generation and ammonia production. The project is funded by the Japanese governmental organization New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Lithium miner Ioneer Ltd has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Shell Canada Energy for the supply of sulphur to Ioneer for its Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Ionner said in a statement that “securing the supply of key reagents for ore processing is an important step along the critical pathway to developing the Rhyolite Ridge project”. Under the memorandum, Ioneer will purchase up to 500,000 t/a of high-quality sulphur from Shell, which would fulfil the estimated annual sulphur requirement for the Project.

Stamicarbon has won a contract for a large-scale urea project in China. The urea plant, with a production capacity of 3,800 t/d, will be the largest ever licensed by Stamicarbon in the country. The customer, the plant’s location and the value of the contract have not been disclosed.

Fulcrum BioEnergy says that it has successfully produced low-carbon synthetic crude oil using landfill waste as a feedstock at its Sierra BioFuels Plant, the world’s first commercial-scale landfill waste-to-fuels plant. Located outside of Reno, Nevada, Sierra will produce approximately 11 million gallons of renewable, low-carbon transportation fuels each year from approximately 175,000 t/a of landfill waste.

At the organisation’s first face to face meeting since covid, in Vienna in early October, OPEC+ ministers agreed to cut global oil supplies by 2 million bbl/d in November. OPEC+ is a group of 24 oil-producing nations, made up of the 14 members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and 10 other non-OPEC members, including Russia. In a statement, the group said the decision to cut production was made “in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks.”