Market and product

LONDON (ICIS)--United Arab Emirates-based fertilizer producer Ruwais Fertilizer Industries (Fertil) is facing further delays in the start-up of its $1.2bn (€924m) fertilizer plant, FERTIL-2, and now expects to begin ammonia production by early April, a company official told ICIS on Monday.

Ammonia production at the plant, which is expected to produce 2,000 tonnes/day of ammonia at full capacity, was initially expected to begin at the end of January, but the start-up date was then revised to the end of March.

The delay is as a result of technical issues, which are common during the start-up phase, the official said.

Urea production at the plant will begin two weeks after the ammonia line starts, the official said. FERTIL-2 is expected to produce 3,500 tonnes/day of urea at full capacity, increasing Fertil’s total urea capacity from 800,000 tonnes/year at present to 2.1m tonnes/year.

Export shipments from the plant are likely to begin at the end of April if production goes as planned. Granular urea from the plant will be exported; no surplus ammonia is expected because it will all be used for downstream urea production.

FERTIL-2 is a fully integrated project based on feedstock natural gas provided by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), which owns a 66.6% stake in Fertil. French oil and gas major Total owns the remainder of the company.

($1 = €0.77)