The Burrup Peninsula in the Pilbara is set to become home to a $4.3 billion fertiliser plant, with Woodside Energy and Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers Pty Ltd signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development. The Western Australian Government has also welcomed this announcement.
“This marks the first major step towards a new gas processing facility on the Burrup in more than a decade,” Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan said.
The MoU is a major step towards the development of the massive fertiliser factory, which is expected to create up to 2,000 jobs during a three-year construction period as well as 200 operational jobs - to be sourced from the Pilbara - once the factory is completed.
The fertiliser plant will be producing urea, which is a nitrogen fertiliser that requires large volumes of hydrogen-rich and easily processed natural gas. Woodside Petroleum will be supplying the gas needed for the production of urea, under the MoU signed with Perdaman.
The new processing plant is expected to produce up to 2Mtpa of fertiliser. This development is going to be Australia’s first urea export project.
“The dream of building a world-class urea plant in WA is one step closer with our strategic partnership with Woodside.
“Perdaman views the development of downstream industries using the State’s gas resources as important to the ongoing creation of jobs, development of regional communities and positioning our State as a key supplier into the growth corridor of the world through Asia,” Perdaman’s Vikas Rambal said.
In a statement, Woodside said that the company will be working with the WA Government for the delivery of local jobs for the region.
Perdaman will now be focusing on securing the necessary approvals from the State Government as well as finalising finance for the project.
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Source: Government of Western Australia, Woodside Energy, Perth Now