Saipem, in a 50% joint venture with Clough, has been selected as the exclusive EPC contractor for the development of Perdaman Industries’ urea plant on the Burrup Peninsula, approximately 20 km North-West of Karratha, on the coastline of Western Australia. The conclusion of the contract is subject to a Final Investment Decision (FID), final signature of an EPC contract and all governmental and regulatory authorizations.

The scope of work of the joint venture includes engineering, construction, pre-commissioning and commissioning of the urea plant including all utilities, urea handling, storage tanks and site civil buildings.

Perdaman will invest a total of $4.5 billion to develop the plant that will transform natural gas into urea, a widely used form of fertiliser for production of food for the future generation. Perdaman has secured natural gas for 20 years from Woodside under the Gas Supply Agreement signed in November 2018.

The facility will consist of the urea fertiliser plant and related facilities with a capacity of 2 million tonnes of urea per annum and will include a water treatment plant, a power plant (100MW), as well as urea storage, loading and unloading facilities. The urea will be shipped from Pilbara Ports Authority to local and offshore markets, with 50 to 100 shiploads expected per year.

“The company is pleased to be part of job creation for the state and is privileged to be the part of the manufacturing initiative project in WA again,” said Vikas Rambal, CEO, Perdaman.

“The coronavirus pandemic has taught us an important lesson about the food security for our society and our over-reliance on imports,” said Rambal.

Peter Bennett, Clough CEO and Managing Director said it’s a significant project for Western Australia. “We are very excited to be part of this milestone project. During the construction phase, this world class facility will create around 2,000 jobs and will be an important development for the Australian resources industry, significantly reducing the nation’s reliance on fertiliser imports", said Bennett.

Alessandro Tattini, APAC Area Manager of Saipem’s Onshore E&C Division commented, “Saipem has a strategic interest in Australia as well as strong international expertise in urea/ammonia. Thanks to this joint venture, we are partnering with a company such as Clough who has been delivering projects in the country for more than a century. This joint venture looks forward to bringing one of the largest urea projects in the world into production for our client Perdaman”.