QatarEnergy’s new plant will double urea production

State-backed QatarEnergy will build a new urea production complex to more than double the Gulf country’s urea output to meet growing global demand.

The new project involves building three ammonia production lines to supply feedstock to four new urea production trains in Mesaieed Industrial City, located 36 kms from Doha. 

Accordingly, urea production will increase from six million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 12.4 mtpa on completion of the complex.

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Urea is used across a number of sectors, such as a fertilizer to provide nitrogen to plants, as a supplement in animal feed and as a material in the manufacture of plastics, drugs, resins, and adhesives.

Production from the Qatar project’s first new urea train is expected before the end of the decade, Saad Al-Kaabi, CEO of QatarEnergy, said.

The project will also establish Mesaieed as the world’s urea production capital, Al-Kaabi said, adding that the country has been producing ammonia and urea for more than five decades.  

The cost of the complex was not disclosed.

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In May, Qatar, the world’s second-largest exporter of urea, signed a long-term urea supply agreement with US-based Koch Fertilizer. 

The Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association said in March that Qatar will ramp up urea production after commercial operations are expected start at the new Ammonia-7 plan in 2026.

The global urea market size was valued at $129 billion in 2023 and is projected to be worth $161 billion by 2032, with an annual growth rate of 2.2 percent, according to forecasts by Fortune Business Insights