New Fertiliser Jv Firm With Oman Formed

The partners in the $1,106 million Indo-Oman fertiliser project yesterday announced the formation of a joint venture to set up a mega fertiliser plant in Oman. An agreement on thefirm was signed between Kribhco, RCF and the Oman Oi.

The project is likely to be commissioned in 2001 and would produce 14.52 lakh tonnes of urea and 3.3 lakh tonnes of ammonia per year.

Both the countries took a long time to settle various issues, including gas prices and the escalation formula, before finally agreeing to form the joint venture firm. The project recently ran into rough weather when chemicals & fertilisers minister M Arunachalam overruled the selection of Italian company Snamprogetti for the turnkey contract.

 

For the 50:50 partnership project between Indian and Oman, Snamprogetti and the German consortium of Krupp-Udhe were short listed and the former was selected after detailed evaluation of the bids.

The announcement on the joint venture firm came after a meeting of the joint management committee presided over by the minister for commerce and industry of the government of the Sultanate of Oman Maqboul Bin Ali Bin Sultan.