35 years of cooperation in Qatar
(Dec. 5, 2004) Hydro has enjoyed more than 35 years of fruitful cooperation with Qatar and Qatar Petroleum. The cooperation has been reconfirmed several times, during no less than three expansions of Qatar Fertilizer Company (QAFCO) and through the launch of Qatar Vinyl Company in 2001.
Hydro was the first non-British foreign company to be engaged in Qatar. This was in 1969 when QAFCO was launched.
In April this year, The Emir of Qatar inaugurated the fourth construction stage of what is the world's largest fertilizer plant. The occasion on April 25 also marked more than 35 years of a unique cooperation between Hydro and Qafco.
Qatar Fertilizer Company now has four fertilizer plants. Qafco 1 came onstream in 1973, Qafco 2 in 1979 and Qafco 3 in 1997. The foundation stone for the fourth Qafco plant was laid on 15 October 2001. The new ammonia and urea plants that are now completed have a daily capacity of 2,000 and 3,000 tonnes respectively.
The new factory also has the world's largest granulation unit which is based on Hydro technology, the world's largest bulk store for urea, with a capacity of 160,000 tonnes, and one of the world's largest ammonia tanks, which can hold 45,000 tonnes.
Hydro's participation in QAFCO has been transferred to Yara International, since the demerger of Hydro's agri activities in March this year and its formation as a separate listed company. Yara carries forward Hydro's 25 percent ownership interest in Qafco.
The operation of Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC), the Qatar based joint venture company in which Hydro has a 29.7% share, was launched in 1997. The petrochemical complex located in the Mesaieed Industrial Area in Qatar was started in 2001 and consists of a chlorine/caustic plant and an EDC/VCM plant. About ten specialists seconded from Hydro support the operation.
QVC has had no lost time injuries (LTI) since start up in 2001 and in September 2003 celebrated 1 million hours without an LTI.
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