Contracts Out for Saudi Mega $1.5 Billion Phosphate Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- The contract for the phosphoric acid plant at the world’s largest integrated fertilizer project at Raz Az Zawr in Saudi Arabia has been awarded to Litwin (Europe Middle East), a division of the Bateman Litwin Group (Amsterdam, Netherlands). The company will proceed with the engineering, procurement and construction of the project. Litwin’s share of the $525 million phosphoric acid plant project is over $330 million.

Three lines of wet phosphoric acid process based on the Yara Hemi-hydrate process technology will be installed. Litwin has selected Turkey’s Tefken Construction and Installation to provide construction services for the plant under a consortium agreement. The project is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2010. Max Abitol, CEO of Litwin, said the company believed that the project would serve as a starting point for further expansion into the Saudi phosphate market.

Construction on all three projects comprising the total $1.5 billion integrated plant will be started by the end of this year with Dragados of Spain leading the di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) granulation plant project , Litwin the phosphoric acid project and Finland’s Outotec the sulfuric acid project. The plant is being built under a strategic partnership agreement between the Saudi state’s mining company, Maaden, and Sabic (Saudi Basic Industries) and when in full operation will produce 3 million tpa of DAP. Each of the three single lump-sum turn-key projects will be the largest of its type in the world.

The sulfuric acid plant, which will comprise of three plants each with a capacity of 4,500 tons per day, will supply chemical grade sulfuric acid to the phosphoric acid plant.

The phosphoric acid plant, consisting of three individual reaction and filtration lines, will produce phosphoric acid which will feed the DAP; plant where four equal sized production lines in the granulation plant will produce the final DAP product.

After primary processing at the mine site, the raw materials will be transported to Ras Az Zawr, by the newly built North South Railway for further processing. Output will be exported to key markets as fertilizer. About 1,400 permanent jobs will be created by the project with a large number of indirect jobs being created in downstream and supporting industries.

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