Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco), Qatar, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Norsk Hydro, Norway, commissioned Krupp Uhde GmbH with the construction of a turnkey fertiliser complex (Qafco IV) in the industrial region of Mesaieed. The letter of intent was issued on July 12, 2001. The contract, which will be financed by a group of regional and international banks, is worth approximately USD 420 million. The contract is scheduled for completion in 32 months’ time. The scope of the contract comprises the basic and detail engineering, supply of equipment, and the construction and commissioning of the following plants: an ammonia plant with a capacity of 2000 tpd, an urea plant with a capacity of 3500 tpd , 2 x 120 t/h steam boilers, an ammonia tank, capacity 45,000 tonnes, a urea storage facility, capacity 160,000 tonnes, expansion of the jetty to enable the simultaneous loading of 2 ships, a sea water intake unit for the cooling water, a formaldehyde plant with a capacity of 82tpd, a demineralisation plant for the production of boiler feed water as well as all utilities and offsites. The ammonia plant will be based on Krupp Uhde’s proprietary process. The licence for the construction of the urea plant is to be supplied by Stamicarbon, Netherlands, while the granulation unit will use Belgium-based Hydro Agri’s granulation process. Upon completion the plant is set to bring Qafco’s annual production capacity to 2 million tonnes of ammonia and 2.8 million tonnes of urea.
