São Paulo – The city of Uberaba, in Minas Gerais, should receive a nitrogenised fertilizer production unit and a gas pipeline. On Thursday morning (17), the signing of a protocol of intentions for investment was scheduled between Petrobras, Cemig and the government of Minas Gerais, the three participants in the project.
With the signing of the protocol, actions should be developed to make the Petrobras fertilizer unit and the Cemig pipeline to supply the ammonia factory economically possible. Presence of president Dilma Rousseff was also scheduled for the release of the projects.
The fertilizer factory should have a production capacity of 519,000 tonnes a year of ammonia and should consume 1,257,000 cubic metres of natural gas per day. The work should begin in February 2012 and should end in December 2014. Investment is expected to total US$ 1.3 billion, according to Petrobras.
The Uberaba region is the main phosphate fertilizer hub in Brazil and the new unit should also supply demand in other states, like Goiás, Mato Grosso and São Paulo.
Ammonia is material for production of mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP), a fertilizer used mainly in maize, sugarcane, coffee, cotton and orange farming, among others. Today, ammonia is mainly imported from Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
*Translated by Mark Ament
