The first product in the plant - the production of ammonia is planned in August of this year, while in October, another product of the plant – nitrogen fertilizer (carbamide) will be produced. Approximately 150,000 tons of carbamide will meet domestic demand while saving $55 million spent annually on fertilizer imported to Azerbaijan. The remaining capacity, of approximately 500,000 tonnes will be exported, yielding additional revenue for the country.
SOCAR Carbamide plant project is implemented pursuant to the “State Program on Reliable Food Supply of the Population in the Republic of Azerbaijan during 2008-2015” approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan number 3004 dated 25 August, 2008 and “State Program for the Development of Industry for 2015-2020” approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan number 964 dated 26 December, 2014.
The construction of the Plant with the area of 39.27 ha is being carried out in Sumgayit. Around 2500-3500 workers have been involved during the construction phase of the Plant and around 300-350 people is expected to be permanently employed during the operation phase.
South Korea`s Samsung Engineering won the tender for the construction of the carbamide plant. Samsung Engineering acts as a general contractor of the plant’s construction, but it has no license for production of carbamide and ammonia, which will be by-product in the carbamide production process. Therefore, the relevant licensing agreements were signed with Haldor Topsoe company (Denmark) for production of ammonia and Stamicarbon B.V. company (the Netherlands) for production of carbamide.
Production at the plant will be environmentally friendly. The entire control system will be fully automated and will meet the highest requirements, including in terms of safety.
The carbamide plant will need 1.5 million cubic meters of gas per day to full capacity.
The commissioning of the plant will cease dependence of Azerbaijan on the import of nitrogen fertilizers, and it can be confidently asserted that in 2018 carbamide will become one of the weighty items of Azerbaijan`s non-oil export.
The carbamide plant will strengthen the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan, and due to the localization of production will allow to spend the saved currency for other needs. It is extremely important that significant volumes of carbamide production contribute to the increase of the export potential of the country, which will bring additional revenues to the budget and give impetus to the development of the non-oil sector.
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