The high demand for urea is due to its low cost, economical and safe transportation, convenient application, and increased productivity in agriculture. In addition, it is considered the most reliable and economical product in terms of storage and transport because it does not pose a fire or explosion hazard.
This type of fertilizer, distinguished by its highest nitrogen content (46.3%) and its ability to dissolve quickly in water, is obtained by synthesizing ammonia and carbon dioxide. Another advantage of urea is that it can be used separately and in combination with other fertilizers. In addition, urea is widely used in animal feed production and other chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
SOCAR Carbamide Plant meets Azerbaijani agriculture’s urea needs. The plant's opening ceremony, founded in 2011, took place on the 16th of January 2019. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the ceremony. The South Korean company Samsung Engineering designed and constructed the Sumgait plant using technology from the Danish ammonia licensor Haldor Topsoe and the Dutch urea licensor Stamicarbon BV. Finnish company Neste Engineering Solutions provided project management consulting and independent inspection services. More than 3,600 workers were involved in the plant's construction during the peak construction period, and more than 18 million man-hours of work were performed without accidents.
At the time of SOCAR’s commissioning of the Carbamide Plant, it was the largest project in the non-oil sector in the country. The state budget initially funded the project. Then, the Export-Import Bank of South Korea (KEXIM), as well as Societe Generale (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany), and UniCredit (Austria), loaned 500 million euros in state guarantees. SOCAR has also allocated about 100 million euros to pay taxes, duties, and other expenses related to the project.
The Carbamide Plant can produce 650-660 thousand tons of urea annually using 435 MM m³ of natural gas as primary raw material. While nitrogen fertilizers were imported to Azerbaijan before the plant was put into operation, SOCAR’s Carbamide Plant can now fully meet the needs of the domestic market and export more than 70% of its products. Consequently, this results in remining of millions of foreign currency funds in the country, previously spent on imports, while at the same time increasing the country's non-oil export revenues.
In 2024-2025, SOCAR’s Carbamide Plant plans to implement several digital transformation projects. Implementation of these projects will lead to the plant’s operation at its maximum production capacity, while reducing the amount of natural gas consumed per ton of urea. The decrease in natural gas consumption, in turn, will lead to a decrease in carbon emissions making the Plant an environmentally cleaner enterprise. All these processes will ultimately make an important contribution to the country's economy by creating added value.
Carbamide Plant is also taking steps to transition to the Global Lighthouse Network platform, which sets benchmarks for companies implementing innovative digital standards around the world. The works carried out within the framework of digital transformation projects will ensure that the Plant will be granted with the Global Lighthouse award after the evaluations to be carried out in 2025, moving the Plant towards the leading production enterprises.
Ilham Aliyev
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan
(Extract from a speech by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev, at the opening of SOCAR Carbamide Plant in Sumgayit,
January 16, 2019)