Bahrain’s fertilizers firm GPIC announced on 5 February an MoU with Italy’s Saipem for feasibility studies of three projects: a “mega” ammonia and urea plant; reducing energy and gas consumption at its existing fertilizers complex; and determining the quality of potential gas feedstock from unconventional resources discovered off Bahrain’s west coast. A world scale plant for final product urea would be around 1.3mn t/y capacity.
GPIC’s existing complex at Sitra has capacity to produce 430,000 t/y of ammonia, 620,000 t/y of urea and 430,000 t/y of methanol. Three shareholders each have 33.3% equity in GPIC: Bahrain’s Nogaholding investment vehicle; Saudi Arabia’s Sabic Agri-Nutrients; and Kuwait’s state petchems firm PIC. (CONTINUED - 163 WORDS)