Indian fertiliser unit in UAE hopes to get gas supply soon

Wednesday, 10 March 2004, 20:30 IST
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DUBAI: An Indian fertiliser company is trying to speed up gas supply to its proposed $200-million plant at the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone here. A.C. Muthiah, chairman of Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation (SPIC), on a visit to the UAE as part of a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) delegation, said talks are on with local authorities for expediting gas supply. In early 2001, the Dubai Supply Authority signed an agreement for supplying SPIC with 40,000 million British thermal units a day of natural gas for 15 years. SPIC Fertiliser & Chemicals Limited is a joint venture between Indian fertiliser major SPIC and the Dubai-based ETA. The project was conceived in 1996. So far SPIC has invested $35 million in the project. The plant will have a capacity to produce 400,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) of urea and 226,000 TPA of ammonia. The products would be exported to India and some other Asian countries, Muthiah said. He said the project is almost 70 percent complete and will be ready in about 15 months. "We are waiting for the gas supply, which Dubai will begin when they have surplus gas," he added. "The Dubai Government has reiterated its earlier commitment of assigning top priority to SPIC projects in the allocation of gas and assured speedy execution of the agreement," he said. Construction of the plant began at Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone in 1998 after SPIC bought a used fertiliser plant from Sri Lanka, but the project moved slowly due to high naphtha prices and the absence of assured gas supplies. The $1 billion SPIC India Group's other project in the Middle East is in Jordan, where it holds 56 percent stake in Indo-Jordan Chemicals. The other partners are Jordan Phosphate Manufacturing Company, with 34 per cent and the Arab Investment Company, with a 10 percent stake. The plant produces 200,000 metric tonnes of phosphoric acid, which is exported to India, where it is used for making fertilisers. He said the project has been making profits from the first day and has been in operation for the last five years. Apart from fertiliser, SPIC also has interest in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and engineering services. Joint venture Gulf SPIC Contracting company specialises in construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance and turnaround services in the oil, chemical and petrochemicals sectors. In Kuwait, Gulf SPIC has been maintaining the Mina Abdullah refinery of the Kuwait National petroleum Corporation (KNPC) and the contract has been renewed for five more years.
Source: IANS