China National Offshore Oil Corp. on Nov. 6 issued tenders to four foreign engineering companies for construction of a major fertilizer plant in southern China.
The four companies are Krupp Uhde, a subsidiary of Germany's ThyssenKrupp Engineering, Japan's Toyo Engineering Group, Italy's Snamprogetti SPA, and Kellogg Brown & Root, a unit of Halliburton Co. of the US.
They will bid to design and engineer a fertilizer plant to be built in Hainan province. CNOOC will announce the tender result early next year. Construction may begin by March 2001 and should be complete by September 2003.
The 3 billion yuan plant, to be located in Dongfang City on Hainan Island, can process 450,000 tonnes/year of ammonia and 800,000 tonnes/year of urea. CNOOC estimates gas consumption at 800 million cu m/year.
The gas will come from the Dongfang gas field in the South China Sea. The field, which CNOOC is developing, will flow at an initial rate of 1.6 billion cu m/year, expandable to 2.4 billion cu m later. Commercial production is expected in September 2003 (OGJ Online, Sept. 18, 2000).
The field could hold 99.68 billion cu m of gas, says CNOOC.
The company is also planning to revamp a power plant to use natural gas.