Two people have been killed and two injured in a tragic accident at the Libyan Norwegian Fertiliser Co. (Lifeco), Yara International ASA’s 50-50 joint venture in Libya. Fire broke out Sunday, July 11, while production was stopped for maintenance.
“We deeply regret the loss of lives. Our thoughts go out to the relatives of the deceased and the ones who were injured,” says President and CEO Jørgen Ole Haslestad. Yara has a 50 percent stake in Lifeco, which was established in 2009 (GM Feb. 16, 2009).
Sunday’s fire broke out in a heat exchanger while scheduled maintenance work was taking place. Yara said its head of production traveled to the site immediately and will assist the investigation team from Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), one of Yara’s partners in the jv. Yara said safeguarding health and security is a high priority and a thorough investigation will aim to prevent similar accidents in the future.
Apart from the loss of lives and injuries, Yara said the material damage to the plant itself was limited. The scheduled stop in production at the affected plant will be prolonged – probably for a few weeks – while other production lines at the site will run normally.
Yara handles all urea and ammonia exports from Lifeco. As of the 2009 completion of the joint venture, urea capacity was put at 900,000 mt/y and merchant ammonia at 150,000 mt/y. The facilities are located at Marsa El Brega at the Mediterranean coast, some 700 km east of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, with approximately 1,200 employees.