August 22, 2006
PetroChina building gas-based fertiliser plant
PetroChina Co. (PTR) has begun building a large-scale fertiliser plant in the Tarim basin which would be utilising natural gas as input, to meet a serious fertiliser shortage in China's northwest, its parent company said Monday (Aug 21).
However, gas supply from the Tarim field is already under pressure from strong demand in the country's east.
The plant would be one of the largest in China in terms of production capacity, at 450,000 tons of synthetic ammonia and 800,000 tonnes of carbamide a year, China National Petroleum Corp said.
China's largest fertiliser plants mostly produce over 200,000 tonnes of synthetic ammonia and 500,000 tonnes of carbamide annually.
Synthetic ammonia and carbamide are key fertilisers essential to local agriculture in the Xinjiang region, where the Tarim basin is located.
Xinjiang, which currently gets its fertiliser from several small companies, mainly produces cotton and wheat.
The plant will consume about 497 million cubic metres of natural gas annually, the CNPC-backed China Petroleum Daily reported Tuesday.
Construction is expected to be completed by 2009 and operations would start the same year, said the paper.
Once operational, it may put further pressure on the Tarim gas field, which is now facing high demand volumes from consumers in the eastern part of the country through the West-to-East Natural Gas Pipeline project.
Tarim is a major source of gas for the project.
Although gas supply is tight, PetroChina started building the fertiliser plant as a commitment to Xinjiang's economic development.
The company expects to boost gas output in the coming decade to meet demand from both eastern consumers and for gas-based fertiliser plants by drilling more wells in the vast Tarim basin.
The Tarim basin consists of 14 gas fields with proven natural gas reserves of 664 billion cubic meters.
Output from the basin totaled around 6.3 billion cubic metres last year.
