Dolphin will supply gas for the $200 million fertiliser project of Spic Fertilisers and Chemicals FZE (SFCL) until the supply from Dubai comes on stream.
In early 2001, the Dubai Supply Authority signed up to supply Spic with 40,000 million British thermal units a day of natural gas for an initial period of 15 years.
"We have had discussions with Dolphin Energy and they have agreed to provide natural gas until Dubai begins to do so," Dr A.C. Muthiah, Spic's chairman in India, told Gulf News yesterday.
SFCL is a joint venture between the South India agribusiness major Spic and the Dubai-based ETA. The project, at the Jebel Ali Free Zone, was conceived in 1996 with an initial investment of $160 million but has been revised and another $30-$40 million pumped in.
"Currently, the project is 60 to 70 per cent complete and it will be ready in about 12-15 months. We are waiting for gas supplies but the prospects look good," Muthiah said.
"Dubai will begin supplies when they have surplus gas," added Muthiah, who was leading a high-level business delegation from India to the UAE.
Some 600,000 tonnes a day of ammonia and 1,200 of prilled urea will be produced at the plant, most of which will be exported to India under a firm buyback arrangement between Spic India and SPCL.
Construction of the plant began at Jebel Ali in 1998 after Spic brought in a second-hand fertiliser plant from Sri Lanka but the project moved slowly due to the high level of 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 and produces more than 200,000 metric tonnes of phosphoric acid. "The project is going ahead very well," Muthiah said.
The UK's M.W. Kellogg is the prime engineering contractor for the ammonia plant project while Dutch company Stamicarbon BV is the technology provider for the urea plant. SpicSMO and Technip India are also involved in the project.
This is the first urea/ammonia project of any Indian company overseas.
Gulf News
