SOCAR's Carbamide Plant is scheduled to produce 660,000 tons of urea this year, said Shohrat Mirzayev, head of the plant's production department, during a media tour organized to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Press, APA-Economics reports.
According to him, last year the plant produced 652,000 tons of urea and plans to exceed this figure this year.
“But we aim to exceed the projected volumes and produce more than 660,000 tons,” said the department head.
Shohret Mirzayev noted that the plant’s production fully meets the country's demand for urea, with 20–30% of the product directed to the domestic market.
He also emphasized that the urea produced at the plant is currently exported to Georgia, Türkiye, and several Black Sea and European countries. Azerbaijani-made urea is also regularly delivered to North and South American countries.
Note that Azerbaijan's demand for urea is met by SOCAR's Carbamide Plant. The opening ceremony of the Carbamide Plant, the foundation of which was laid in 2011, took place on January 16, 2019.
The plant was the largest project implemented in the non-oil sector in the country at the time of its commissioning. The project was initially financed by funds allocated from the state budget. Later, funds in the amount of 500 million euros were attracted from the Export-Import Bank of South Korea (KEXIM), as well as from the banks “Societe Generale” (France), “Deutsche Bank” (Germany) and “UniCredit” (Austria) on the basis of a state guarantee. In addition, SOCAR allocated approximately 100 million euros to cover taxes and fees, as well as other expenses related to the project.
The urea plant has the capacity to produce 650-660 thousand tons of urea products per year, using 435 million m³ of natural gas as raw material. While nitrogen fertilizers were imported to Azerbaijan before the plant was put into operation, this enterprise is currently able to fully meet the needs of the domestic market and export more than 70% of its products. As a result, millions of foreign currency previously spent on imports remain in the country, while at the same time increasing the country's non-oil export revenues.
