Morocco’s Office Cherifien de Phosphate (OCP), the world’s largest phosphate exporter, has signed an agreement with the Switzerland-based Libya-Africa Investment Portfolio to jointly develop ammonia, phosphoric acid and diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser plants in Morocco and Libya.

Under the $1bn deal, the two firms will develop a 1-million-tonne-a-year (t/y) phosphoric acid plant at Jorf Lasfar in Morocco at a cost of about $350m, an 800,000-t/y ammonia plant in Libya costing $500m, and a $150m DAP facility in either Libya or Morocco.

Rabat is encouraging investment in the domestic fertiliser sector. It recently signed a similar $600m agreement with PetroVietnam Fertiliser & Chemicals Company to build a DAP plant in Morocco (MEED 19:5:08).

The government hopes to increase fertiliser output from Jorf Lasfar from 2.5 million t/y currently to 10 million t/y by 2015.

Separately, Algerian state energy company Sonatrach has signed an agreement with Spain’s Fertiberia to build an ammonia plant at Arzew.

The plant will have capacity of 1.1 million t/y, using more than 1 billion cubic metres a year of gas feedstock supplied by Sonatrach.

The two partners will form two joint venture companies - the first for the development of the plant, the second to market the ammonia internationally.