Tag: Construction

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%.

LKAB has begun construction of its new demonstration plant for processing phosphorus and rare earth elements at Luleå. The facility is the first in a planned industrial park and, says LKAB, marks an important step in the company's ambition to diversify its business with new minerals. The supply of phosphorus for mineral fertilizers is essential for food security in Sweden and the EU, while rare earth elements are critical for the electrification and digitalisation of society, such as the production of permanent magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines. The $75 million demonstrator plant is planned to become operational in 2026. The aim is to further develop and verify the process for utilizing material flows from iron ore production in Gällivare, where apatite concentrate is produced for further refinement and production of critical minerals in Luleå. Through a stepwise expansion, the operations can then be scaled up with additional processing facilities over time, aiming for full operation during the 2030s. Once fully operational, the industrial park’s production will be approximately seven times Sweden’s needs and 6% of the EU’s demand for phosphorus in agriculture. Currently, there is no mining of rare earth elements in Europe.

TotalEnergies and its partners Basra Oil Company and QatarEnergy have begun construction works at ArtawiGas25, a processing facility for the associated gas from the Ratawi field, located in the Basra region. The facility, part of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP), represents an investment of around $250 million and will process 50 million scf/d of gas which would previously have been flared. The gas will supply local power plants, covering the demand of approximately 200,000 households in the Basra region. The GGIP project is a $10 billion project designed to enhance the development of Iraq’s natural resources and improve the country’s electricity supply. It includes a large-scale gas processing plant, with a first phase of 300 million scf/d that will recover gas being flared on three oil fields and supply gas to 1.5 GW of power generation capacity.

A foundation laying ceremony attended by Qatar’s Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani has been held at Qafco’s new blue ammonia facility at Mesaieed Industrial City on Qatar’s east coast. The plant, which is scheduled to be completed in 4Q 2026, will be the largest blue ammonia facility in the world. Speaking at the ceremony, energy minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said the facility will have a capacity of 1.2 million t/a, along with CO2 injection and storage facilities with a capacity of 1.5 million t/a. QatarEnergy will also provide the new plant with more than 35 MW of electricity from the solar power plant currently being built in Mesaieed. Completion of the complex will see Qatar become the world’s largest exporter of urea, producing 12.4 million t/a, according to Qafco.

Carbon Recycling International (CRI), which operates a geothermally powered green methanol plant at Svartsengi, 40km southwest of Reykjavik, had to evacuate its site in late November when a 3km fissure opened in the earth a few kilometres away and lava began spilling across adjacent land. Satellite photos of the area taken on November 24 show a large field of molten and cooled lava to the north, west, and south of Svartsengi, though the plant itself remained undamaged. CRI’s Iceland facility runs on CO2 , water, and renewable electricity from the Svartsengi geothermal power station. CRI says the low-carbon energy source allows it to produce 4,000 t/a of methanol with a greenhouse gas footprint just 10–20% that of conventional methanol.