ABF ponders urea/ammonia revamp

24 March 2003 00:00  [Source: ACN]

Asean Bintulu Fertiliser (ABF) is considering debottlenecking and revamping its 1800 tonne/day (594 000 tonne/year) urea plant and 1320 tonne/day ammonia unit in Bintulu, Sarawak, east Malaysia, a Petronas source told ACN last week.

The company may increase the capacity of its urea plant to 2250 tonne/day and its ammonia facility to 1350 tonne/day. It would carry out the debottlenecking during a routine turnaround in Q4 2004 and complete the expansion by end-2004.

ABF aims to replace obsolete equipment in the 18-year-old units. He declined to reveal how much the project would cost, but said it would be 100% financed by Petronas.

The company exports most of its urea to Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Most of its ammonia is used as feedstock for urea production. The rest is sold domestically and to Southeast Asia.

ABF is a joint venture between five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - Malaysia (Petronas, 63.5%), Indonesia (Pupuk Sriwidjaya, 13%), Thailand (Ministry of Industry, 13%), Philippines (National Development Company, 9.5%) and Singapore (Temasek Holdings, 1%).

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