(MENAFN - The Peninsula) DOHA: Qafco-6, the sixth plant in the series of Qatar Fertiliser Company's trains for the production of ammonia and urea, will be inaugurated by the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on December 11, 2012.
Qafco Chairman Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al Malki (pictured) said here yesterday that the project has been implemented to culminate Qafco's ambitious plans for development and modernisation.
"Through an efficient strategy, well-studied utilisation of latest technologies applied in fertilizer production, Qafco has expanded its production base through time and developed its facilities. Qafco inaugurated its first plant in 1973 and since then it has been cruising its way ahead, responding adequately to the demand of the global fertilizer market. Today, Qafco has five integrated plants. Qafco-6, the new plant, which will be inaugurated by H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, will occupy a pride of place among them."
Elaborating on the project Al Malki said: "The EPC contract for Qafco-6 was signed on November 5, 2009, between Qatar Fertilizer Company (Qafco) and a consortium from the Italian company Saipem and the Korean Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company for the construction of the plant.
The project facilities include a complete urea plant, with a design capacity of 3,800 mtpd of urea, including a granulator unit with a design capacity of 3,850 mtpd; a complete urea granules storage, with a capacity of 175,000 mt and a complete material handling system with a capacity of 1,000 mtph of urea granules. Other facilities include additional seawater cooling cells, steam and power generation facilities in addition to the ones already in the Qafco-5 Plant. The total cost of the Qafco-6 project is around 610m.
Qafco-6 represents an important quantitative stride on Qafco's scale of progress; it will play a pivotal role in economic development in Qatar and will mark yet another step in the programme of industrial diversification for utilising the country's abundant resource of natural gas.
After the completion of Qafco-6, the production capacity of the company will be 5.6 million tonnes of urea per annum, thus enabling Qafco to be the fourth largest producer and the largest exporter of urea in the world.
