Tag: Construction

Daewoo Engineering & Construction has signed a $700 million framework agreement to build a fertilizer plant in Turkmenistan. The agreement was signed in Seoul with Turkmenistan's state-owned chemical firm, Turkmenhimiya, according to the Turkmen Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, noting the Korean firm was named the preferred bidder for the project in October. The project aims to construct a fertilizer plant that will extract phosphoric acid from phosphate rocks and process the substance into 300,000 t/a of annually in eastern Turkmenistan by 2029.

Kazakh state gas company QazaqGaz says that work is progressing well and on schedule on the 1 billion m3 expansion project at the Kashagan Gas Processing Plant. A recent site report says that seven absorption columns have been installed at the sulphur treatment unit (each weighing between 50-170 tonnes); three sections of the smokestack have been installed at the sulphur recovery block, along with storage tanks and pumps for the heat carrier, instrumentation air, and nitrogen supply units; and a total of 2,177 t of process equipment has been installed. Welding works for tank assembly are ongoing, and over 12,000 meters of underground piping have been laid, and more than 38,000 cubic meters of concrete have been poured.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda has overseen the signing of signed an implementation agreement for the Uganda Refinery between the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and joint venture partner Alpha MBM Investments. Alpha MBM is a UAE-based company led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum, a member of the Dubai Royal Family. The agreement paves way for the design, construction and operation of the 60,000 bbl/d refinery to be undertaken at Kabaale. Construction is expected to take three years, with UNOC and Alpha MBM Investments as the project partners. The refinery, which will be East Africa’s first major crude processing plant, aims to reduce Uganda’s dependency on imported petroleum products and is expected to meet the local and regional demand for petroleum products.

The Kazakh government has approved the construction of a new ammonia and urea plant in the country’s Mangistau region, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Construction will be carried out by a joint venture between QazaqGaz National Company and ESTA Construction under Qazesta Fertilizers Ltd. The total investment for the project is $1.35 billion, with construction expected to be completed within three and a half years. The plant’s annual production capacity is projected to reach up to 700,000 t/a of urea and 420,000 t/a of ammonia, adding value to the country’s natural gas production and helping to substitute domestic production for foreign imports of nitrogen fertilizer. Despite a national demand of 3.2 million t/a, domestic production currently only meets about half of that need.

UAE-based chemicals and transition fuels hub TA’ZIZ has awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract worth $1.7 billion to engineering company Samsung E&A to build the UAE’s first methanol plant. The facility will be located at the Al Ruwais Industrial City in the western part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi. It is projected to produce 1.8 million t/a green methanol, powered by clean energy from the grid, with the plant scheduled for completion in 2028.

The Saipem Clough Joint Venture says that it has reached a major milestone on Perdaman’s Project Ceres urea plant, with the completion of construction of the first modules. The batch has been successfully loaded out and shipped from the project’s modular fabrication facility in India to its destination in Western Australia. Once completed, the 2.3 million t/a facility will be the largest urea plant in Australia. Clough and Saipem in a 50-50 joint venture, are delivering the engineering, procurement of equipment and materials, construction, pre-commissioning and commissioning for the urea project.

New carbon capture-based plants could see US nitrogen capacity jump over the next few years, but Trump attacks on IRA tax credits may scupper some ongoing projects.

Nitrogen+Syngas ’s annual listing of new ammonia, urea, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants.

Toyo Engineering Corporation (TEC) will license its ACES-21 urea technology to Angolan fertilizer producer Amufert for the Soyo urea plant in Angola. The plant will have a capacity of 4,000 t/d and will be the first of its kind in the country, based on abundant local natural gas supplies. Toyo Engineering will supply licensing, basic design, certain equipment procurement and technical services, while international engineering company Wuhuan Engineering will lead the engineering, procurement and construction of the plant. Production is expected to start in 2027. KBR was previously awarded the license for the 2,300 t/d ammonia plant in November 2024 (see Nitrogen+Syngas 393, Jan/Feb 2025, p6).

Jordan’s Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan laid the foundation stone for the second phase of Jordan Phosphate Mines (JPMC) new sulphuric and phosphoric acid plants at Al-Shidiya in a ceremony in mid-February. The Phase II expansion aims to increase the sulphuric acid plant's production capacity from 2,200 t/d to 4,450 t/d (1.5 million t/a). The phase will generate an additional 20 MW of energy per hour, with the potential to export 9 MW. The project will also boost the production capacity of the phosphoric acid plant from 900 t/d to 1,600 t/d (equivalent to 550,000 t/a P2 O5 ). Construction is expected to be completed, and operations begun by September of this year. With the expansion of the industrial complex in Aqaba and future projects involving potash and partnerships in the phosphoric acid industry, JPMC plans to increase its local consumption to 70%, while reducing external exports by 30%.