The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) will invest A$255 million (approximately US$182.8 million at current exchange rates) in infrastructure supporting Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers Pty Ltd.’s proposed A$4.3 billion urea project near Karratha on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
The investment will be used in upgrades to common-user infrastructure that will support the urea project that proposes to produce some 2.14 million mt/y of granular urea.
NAIF’s investment comprises two loans and are the first NAIF investments into Western Australia government entities, according to a Western Australian government statement, announcing the funding.
The loans include a A$160 million facility to the Pilbara Ports Authority for a new multi-user wharf and facilities at the Port of Dampier, and a A$95 million facility to the Water Corp. for the expansion of the Burrup seawater supply and brine disposal scheme that will connect the Perdaman urea plant once built.
The NAIF loans build on the Western Australia government support for the project, which has included A$47.6 million for road relocation costs, the detailed design of a new Dampier cargo wharf and upgrades to seawater supply infrastructure.
Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) last September recommended for environmental approval Perdaman’s proposal to construct and operate a urea plant within the Burrup Strategic Industrial Area, subject to conditions including air quality (GM Sept. 10, 2021).
“Recent international supply chain issues have highlighted just how important urea is to industry sectors such as agriculture and transport,” said Western Australia Deputy Premier and State Development, Jobs and Trade Minister Roger Cook.
Country-wide shortages of technical-grade urea, which is used to make AdBlue solution, over the past several weeks have been threatening to bring Australia’s transport industry to a halt (GM Jan. 28, p. 30; Dec. 31, 17, &10, 2021).
Perdaman currently is targeting first production in fourth-quarter 2025. The company last May signed a 20-year offtake deal with Incitec Fertilizers Pty Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Incitec Pivot Ltd. (IPL), for up to 2.3 million mt/y of granular urea from the proposed plant 2025 (GM May 7, 2021).