Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco), Qatar, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum (QP) with a 75% share and Norsk Hydro, Norway with a 25% share, has commissioned Dortmund-based Krupp Uhde GmbH with the construction of a turnkey fertiliser complex (Qafco IV) in the industrial region of Mesaieed, 40 kilometers south of the capital Doha.

The letter of intent was issued on July 12, 2001.

The contract, which will be financed by a group of regional and international banks, is worth approximately US $420 million (~ DM 950 million). The contract is scheduled for completion in 32 months` time. The scope of the contract comprises the basic and detail engineering, supply of equipment, and the construction and commissioning of the following plants:

･ ammonia plant with a capacity of 2,000 t/day ･ urea plant with a capacity of 3,500 t/day (This will be one of the world`s largest single-train plants)
･ 2 x 120 t/h steam boilers
･ ammonia tank, capacity 45,000 tonnes
･ urea storage facility, capacity 160,000 tonnes (the size of five football pitches)
･ expansion of the jetty to enable the simultaneous loading of 2 ships
･ sea water intake unit for the cooling water
･ formaldehyde plant with a capacity of 82 t/day
･ demineralisation plant for the production of boiler feed water as well as all appurtenant utilities and offsites.

The ammonia plant will be based on Krupp Uhde`s proprietary process, thus guaranteeing a modern, energy-saving and environment-friendly plant concept. The licence for the construction of the urea plant is to be supplied by Stamicarbon, Netherlands, while the granulation unit will use Belgium-based Hydro Agri`s granulation process, which is particularly environment-friendly. Waste gases are filtered and then treated. Furthermore, the urea granules are characterised by a good consistency and hardness and the grain size can be varied.

Upon completion the plant is set to bring Qafco`s annual production capacity to 2 million tonnes of ammonia and 2.8 million tonnes of urea, making Qafco the world`s largest single site producer of these fertilisers.

Krupp Uhde completed and successfully commissioned a plant complex of a similar size for the same customer as early as 1997.

It is therefore no coincidence that a spokesman for the customer said, "The contract has been awarded to Krupp Uhde because the company fulfils all technical requirements of this project and because Krupp Uhde submitted the most favourably priced bid compared with its competitors Snam Progetti/Italy and Kellogg Brown & Root/USA with Chiyoda/Japan. Krupp Uhde is a very well-known `world-class` engineering company with exceptional experience in the fertiliser and petrochemical industries."

On June 20 of this year the Emir of Qatar, H. H. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, opened an industrial-scale complex for the production of chlorine, ethylene dichloride (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) following its on-schedule completion by Krupp Uhde.

Through its completion of the above two plants Krupp Uhde has thus won an order volume of some US $1.3 billion in this country in the last eight years and earned itself an extremely good reputation as a reliable engineering partner in this region.

Krupp Uhde is one of the world`s leading suppliers in the field of large-scale fertiliser plants, which was incidentally the first field of activity for the company on its foundation by Friedrich Uhde 80 years ago.

Krupp Uhde is a company of ThyssenKrupp Technologies and has a workforce of 3,200 employees worldwide. The company`s activities focus on the design and construction of chemical and other industrial plants in the following fields: fertilisers, organic chemicals and plastics, electrolysis, oil & gas and pharmaceuticals.

The Sheikhdom of Qatar is an independent state in the northeast of the Arabian peninsula, on the south coast of the Persian-Arabian gulf. Qatar has mainland borders with Saudi Arabia in the southwest. Qatar covers an area of almost 11,500 square kilometres and is about half the size of Hessen. It has a population of some 600,000 people. The "North Gas Field" situated 80 kilometres northeast of the mainland is the world`s largest natural gas field. Qatar therefore has the third largest natural gas reserves in the world (after Russia and Iran). Natural gas is also the feedstock for the production of fertilisers.

Map of the region (Gif, 22kb)

Contact:
Horst Gieseler
Krupp Uhde GmbH
Public Relations
Telefon +49 (231) 547-2035
Telefax +49 (231) 547-2628
E-Mail: gieselerH@kud.thyssenkrupp.com