Cairo-Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) said April 15 that Sorfert Algeria, a 51-49 joint venture between OCI and the Algerian state-owned oil & gas company Sonatrach, has entered into a formal loan agreement with leading Algerian banks for a projected finance debt facility totaling the equivalent of approximately EUR 1.1 billion in Algerian dinar. The loan will be used to finance the construction of Sorfert’s state-of-the-art nitrogen-based fertilizer production complex in northwest Algeria. The loan is for 15 years, including an approximately 3-year grace period as well as the construction period. The complex will consist of an ammonia/granulated urea plant with a capacity of up to 1.2 million mt/y, and a second ammonia plant with a capacity 800,000 mt/y to be located in the industrial zone of Arzew near several major Algerian ports on the Mediterranean Sea. Sorfert is set to become one of the largest fertilizer exporters on the Mediterranean. The plant is scheduled to start commissioning its first production plant during the second half of 2010. Sorfert also entered into an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Uhde GmbH and OCI Algeria (OCI’s wholly owned construction subsidiary) in continuation to the earlier works agreement signed in June 2007. Uhde has already concluded procurement of 80 percent of the critical and long lead items. Furthermore, construction work on the site has been underway since last year. OCI has partnered with Udhe on several projects in the past, including the construction of two urea production lines for Egyptian Fertilizer Co. (EFC), a recently acquired wholly owned subsidiary to OCI.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain