Bolivian state-owned YPFB plans a tender this year for engineering and design studies for a second urea plant that could double current production, YPFB President Armin Dorgathen said in a statement. The company expects the cost of the pre-investment stage to be US$1.29 million, with $1.11 million to be spent in 2023.
Last year, plans were also announced that the country would build a 60,000 mt/y NPK plant in central Cochabamba province (GM July 15, 2022).
The urea plant operating in Bulo Bulo in Cochabamba province currently produces 365,000 mt/y, according to Dorgathen, though earlier production targets have been higher – 590,000 mt/y and 2,100 mt/d (GM Sept. 10, 2021). He said Bolivia replaced 99% of fertilizer imports due to domestic urea production, without specifying a timeframe.
Dorgathen said the company will seek to boost exports with the second plant. The Bulo Bulo plant, Bolivia’s only nitrogen plant, has previously exported to five countries – Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The plant began operations in September 2017, but has suffered a series of operational problems since start-up.
This latest production stoppage – arguably the most serious and far-reaching – began in November 2019 (GM Jan. 31, 2020) and lasted until September 2021. According to comments in March 2021 by YPFB Executive President Wilson Zelaya, the shutdown of operations at the plant was not done according to proper procedures, and resulted in some damage to equipment. He said an adequate hibernation of the plant was not undertaken, nor was proper maintenance performed (GM March 26, 2021).
Many blamed the alleged use of unqualified personnel for the damage at the plant amid the country’s political crisis in November 2019, which saw the resignation of controversial President Evo Morales and the assumption to the presidential role of Jeanine Áñequalz Chávez, which also was not without controversy.
After a landslide win for the Movement for Socialism the following year and the installment of new President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora on Nov. 8, 2020, work began on rehabilitating and reactivating the Bulo Bulo plant.