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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 5 July 2019:
LIFECo, the Libyan-Norwegian joint venture Fertilizer company announced yesterday that it had resumed production of ammonia – the first stage of fertilizer production.
LIFECo said that production had started at its second ammonia plant AMM2 to be followed directly by production at its first ammonia plant.
It reported that the initial production of liquid ammonia (NH3) at its AMM1 plant will go on to become urea fertilizer in quantities that would cover the needs of the local Libyan market and local agricultural projects which should aid the local farming sector and local food production.
This in turn would reduce the need for foreign imports and reduce demand for hard currency.
The news from LIFECo is welcomed news to Libya which is suffering a resumption of fighting between its two main political blocks.
The announcement also shows a speedy turnaround and resumption of production by LIFECo.
It will be recalled that it was only in January this year that Libya’s state owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) had announced that it had suspended the supply of natural gas to LIFECo pending the settlement of LIFECo’s outstanding debts to the NOC.
However, after protracted negotiations, the NOC announced in June that it had resumed the supply of natural gas to LIFECo’s plant.
It also announced that the agreement to commence natural gas supplies involved the NOC assuming control of the marketing of ammonia and urea products.
LIFECo, it will be recalled, is a joint venture between Norway’s Yara, with 50 percent shareholding, and the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) with 25 percent and the NOC with 25 percent.
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