QatarEnergy plans to double annual urea production

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State-owned QatarEnergy will boost its production of urea to more than 12.4 million tonnes annually from 6 million tonnes currently, its CEO said in a press conference on Sunday, without giving a timeframe.

Saad Al-Kaabi, also Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs, said the construction of four new production lines for urea, a key ingredient in fertilisers, would boost output by 106 per cent. He said the first production line would begin before 2030.

“When we looked at the market for urea in the future, with the growth of humanity today, with 1.5 to 2 billion people that will be joining us in the next 20-30 years, the urea requirement for food production will be exponentially increasing,” Kaabi said.

He also said construction on a project to expand gas production from the North Field was on schedule.

The massive expansion is set to boost QatarEnergy‘s overall liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by 85 per cent over current levels. North Field is part of the world’s largest natural gas field that Qatar shares with Iran, which calls it South Pars.

Kaabi also announced the construction of a third new solar power station in Qatar’s eastern Dukhan region to more than double the Gulf state’s overall solar energy production to 4,000 megawatts by 2030.

Read: Qatar strikes another 15-year LNG supply deal with Kuwait