Moldova is keen to get Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company and urea producer SOCAR interested in establishing fertilizer production in the country, according to a Trend report, citing an interview with Moldova Energy Minister Victor Parlicov.
According to the report, Parlicov sees potential collaboration given SOCAR’s expertise in urea production, as well as “it being strategic” to establish production facilities closer to the nearby “significant markets” of Romania and Bulgaria.
He also sees Ukraine as a target market, given its proximity and despite substantial fertilizer production of its own, saying uncertainties arising from the war have raised “questions about its future output.”
“As an agricultural nation, Moldova not only utilizes these products domestically, but also serves as a pivotal logistics hub for exporting to EU countries and Ukraine,” he said.
SOCAR
diversified into ammonia and urea production at the end of the last decade,
starting up production in January 2019 at a new complex at Sumgayit, some 30
kilometers from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku (GM Jan. 18, 2019). The plant has nameplate capacity of 1,200 mt/d
of ammonia and 2,000 mt/d of granular urea.
According to the Trend report, SOCAR
produced 454,000 mt of urea last year, with 78.3% of the output directed to
export markets.
Azerbaijan’s urea exports in 2021 totaled 289,859 mt, according to Trade Data Monitor. Exports to the nearby target markets noted by Parlicov included 16,712 mt to Bulgaria in 2021, 52,817 mt to Romania in 2022, and 12,317 mt to Ukraine in 2022, increasing to 93,705 mt in 2023.
Parlicov said Moldova is also open to the possibility of SOCAR investing in gas distribution infrastructure in the country.