Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s acting President will be visiting Port Harcourt today to open officially, the world’s biggest fertilizer plant constructed by Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited.
The Senior Special Assistant to Acting Pres. Yemi Osinbajo, Mr. Laolu Akande, on Media and Publicity, made the announcement in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to the presidential aide, the plant with production capacity of 1.5 million metric tons of Urea fertilizer is considered the world’s largest single-train Urea plant.
Eleme Petrochemicals Company Ltd, now Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited, was privatized in 2006 after the sale of Federal Government’s 75 per cent shares to a core investor through competitive bidding process.
The plant has a production capacity of 4,000 metric tons of nitrogenous fertilizer per day. It was built with $1.5bn.
The opening of the plant is expected to boost the agriculture sector not just in Nigeria, but also in Africa and beyond.
Akande said fertilizer from the plant would be made available to farmers nationwide at an affordable cost.
This will boost crop yield for farmers and help in minimizing food grain deficit in Nigeria, Akande said.
The plant consists of 2300 TPD Ammonia plant, 4000 TPF Urea plant, 83 km long Gas Pipeline, and an Export Port Terminal.
The main plant, measuring approximately 40 hectares, is located within the perimeter of Indorama’s existing petrochemical site in Port Harcourt.
The Gas Pipeline for the fertilizer plant was constructed by IEFCL within an existing 15 meter wide Right of Way (“ROW”).
Part of the $1.5bn was used to build a new jetty at Onne Port on a plot of land measuring approximate 6 hectares
The jetty comprises 320 m long Quay along with terminal infrastructure including all material handling facilities necessary for urea and a urea storage facility with a capacity of 45,000 MT.
Fabrication of the new fertilizer plant commenced in early 2013 with commissioning coming two years later than planned.
Transportation of urea from the fertilizer plant will be by road via an existing road network.
