Iraq plans rehabilitation of fertiliser plant

01 October 2012

Khor al-Zubair plant in the south of Iraq to be restored

Iraq’s State Company for Fertilisers South Region (SCF) has invited firms to bid for construction work as part of the rehabilitation of the Khor al-Zubair fertiliser plant in the south of Iraq.

Firms have been asked to submit bids by 27 November, along with a 1 per cent bid bond.

Bid documents are available upon payment of $1,000 to SCF.

The scope of work includes construction and completion works, as well as the installation of equipment and piping at fertiliser complex-3.

The facility will use technology from Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe for its ammonia unit and from Italy’s Snamprogetti for urea production.

There are two fertiliser plants at Khor al-Zubair. The first, known as fertiliser complex-2 was brought onling in 1978 with a design capacity of 73,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of ammonia and 58,000 t/y of urea, as well as 115,000 t/y of sulphuric acid and 153,000 t/y of ammonium sulphate.

Fertiliser complex-3 was also built at Khor al-Zubair, but was severely damaged in the Iran-Iraq war, forcing it to close operations until 1989. A rehabilitation project had been planned under Saddam Hussain, which would have seen capacity doubled, but the project never progressed with Iraq under international sanctions.

The US’ KBR won a contract with State Company for Fertilisers in December 2011, to provide a licence for its ammonia production process and to debottleneck the North Fertiliser plant at Baiji in the north of Iraq.

Iraq’s fertiliser plants have been running well below capacity since the US-led invasion in 2003 due to the insufficient supplies of natural gas as a raw material, shortages of electricity and problems such as ageing machinery and equipment.

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