Acting president Osinbajo to open world's largest fertiliser plant in Port Harcourt later today

ACTING president Professor Yemi Osinbajo will open the world's largest fertiliser plant in Port Harcourt later today as the government continues its programme of economic diversification aimed at ending Nigeria's dependency on oil.

Seen as a way of enhancing industrialisation and ending Nigeria's dependence on the export of primary products like crude oil, the new facility was built by Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Company. According to Professor Osinbajo's spokesman Laolu Akande, the plant has a production capacity of 1.5m tonnes of urea fertiliser and is considered the world’s largest single-train urea plant.

Eleme Petrochemicals Company, now known as Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals, was privatised in 2006 after the sale of the federal government’s 75% shares to a core investor through a competitive bidding process. It has a production capacity of 4,000 tonnes of nitrogenous fertiliser per day and was built at a cost of $1.5bn.

According to Mr Akande, fertiliser from the plant would be made available to farmers nationwide at an affordable cost. This he said will boost crop yield for farmers and help in minimising food grain deficit in Nigeria.

In addition, the facility has a 83 km long gas pipeline and an export port terminal and the main plant, measuring approximately 40 hectares, is located within the perimeter of Indorama’s existing petrochemical site in Port Harcourt. Part of the $1.5bn was used to build a new jetty at Onne Port on a plot of land measuring approximately six hectares

For now, the transfer of urea from the fertiliser plant will be by road via an existing road network. Construction of the new fertiliser plant commenced in early 2013 with commissioning coming two years later than planned.