Ammonia-urea plant nears completion

Press, 17 June 1982, Page 16

Ammonia-urea plant nears completion

PA Wellington The Petrochemical Corporation of New Zealand, Ltd, ammonia-urea plant at Kapuni is now 85 per cent complete, according to a company statement.

About 300 workmen are putting the finishing touches to the $9B million manufacturing complex, which is. due “to start production 7. in December.

When completed, the plant will turn out 87,000 tonnes of ammonia a year, using natural gas as feedstock. The ammonia will then.be converted to 155,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser in granular form. Some 35,000 tonnes of the fertiliser will be sold domestically, and the rest will be exported. Pre-commissioning of the

ammonia plant began in May, and, preparations are under way for pre-commis-sioning the'urea plant. Site power supply, the instrument air system, and service air were commissioned in May. The fire water system, water supply, water treatment plant, part of the effluent treatment system, and the auxiliary boiler, will be commissioned by July.

The general manager of Petrochem, Mr Joseph Pope, said that the company expected to carry out performance tests by mid-November, and the plant would move into commercial production in early December. Mr Pope said that the plant workforce would be about 100 a year when the plant was fully operational.

"There will be more than 50 people involved in plant management and production, five in the process engineering and laboratory sections, eight in administration and about 30. maintenance staff,” he said.

Capital Plant International, Ltd, is the main contractor for the ammoniaurea project. Fish ’Engineering of Houston supplied the ammonia plant and Toyo Engineering of Tokyo supplied the urea plant. The local content of the plant, however, was substantial, said Mr Pope.

“All sub-contracts for plant construction have been let to New Zealand firms supplying New . Zealand labour,” he said.