KARACHI, Jan 6 Asia Pulse – Engro Fertilisers Limited has begun operation of its new fertiliser plant, the world’s largest single train ammonia-urea plant, in Daharki, Pakistan. The plant has a production capacity of 1.3 million tons per annum and takes Engro Fertiliser’s total annual urea production capacity to 2.3 million tons.
The expansion project, which is the largest private sector industrial investment in Pakistan worth US$1.1 billion, is a sate of the art structure and is the most energy efficient fertiliser plant in the country with the lowest consumption of gas per ton of urea.
In this project, Engro Fertiliser said it has continued its tradition of maintaining the highest benchmarks of health, safety and environment (HSE) by being 100 percent environmentally compliant and recording 29.8 million man hours without lost work day injury – a new record for the country.
Khalid Siraj Subhani, CEO Engro Fertilisers Limited, said, “With this expansion, Pakistan will have the production capacity to become self sufficient in urea, and the Pakistan farmer will reap the benefit of cheaper urea produced domestically.”
At present Pakistan’s urea demand stands at approximately 6.2 million tons, whereas local production is approximately 5.2 million tons. To cover this shortfall, the GoP annually imports an average of 500 million dollars worth of urea, in addition to bearing the subsidy for imported urea.
With the addition of this capacity, Engro Fertilisers provides Pakistan with the ability to reduce the import bill thereby saving on valuable foreign exchange as well as resulting in benefits for the farmer, consumer and the national economy.