Uhde secures huge order from Saudi Arabia
The Uhde group whose head office is in Dortmund, Germany, has been awarded a contract at Jubail Industry City, Saudi Arabia, for the construction of a turnkey fertiliser complex.
The contract was awarded by Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company (SAFCO), an affiliate of Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), one of the worlds largest petrochemical groups.
This is the fourth contract for a huge fertiliser complex to have been awarded to Uhde in the last 24 months, the other three being from Qatar, Turkmenistan and Oman. As a result, Uhde now ranks among the most successful contractors and technology suppliers in this field worldwide.
The overall complex, which will be located in the industrial area of Al-Jubail, 120 km north of Dammam on the Arabian Gulf, will consist of a single-train ammonia plant with a capacity of 3,300 tonnes per day (the largest ever worldwide) and a 3,250 tonne-per-day urea plant. The complex will further comprise various off-sites, such as two ammonia tanks with storage capacities of 20,000 and 30,000 tonnes respectively, two urea storage facilities of 56,000 tonnes capacity and a sea water cooling unit. One ammonia tank and one urea storage facility will be installed within the complex, the others will be located in the harbour.
Natural gas extracted in Saudi Arabia will be used as the feedstock.
The Uhde group will be responsible for the entire basic and detail engineering and procurement of equipment as well as the construction and erection, project management, plant commissioning and training of the operating personnel.
The end product, granulated urea, will be marketed worldwide as nitrogenous fertiliser by SABIC, the largest fertiliser exporter (5.5 million tonnes per year).
The ammonia plant will operate according to the new Uhde proprietary Dual-Pressure Process. This new concept, permits the construction of even larger capacities because equipment with proven dependability can be used in such plants. The Uhde process guarantees a modern, low-energy, environment-friendly and particularly reliable plant concept. The catalysts for the ammonia plant will be supplied by Uhde's renowned ammonia partner Synetix of the UK.
The urea process is licensed by Stamicarbon of Netherlands while the urea granulation process is licensed by Hydro Fertilizer Technology of Belgium.
Uhde secured this contract in the face of keen competition by an Italian/Japanese consortium and two other Japanese contractors.
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