BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Brunei Fertilizer Industries (BFI) on Monday signed an agreement with Muara Port Company (MPC) that will allow the fertilizer manufacturer to export granular urea through the country’s biggest marine port.
With BFI eyeing exports of granular urea to far-off markets such as India, Australia, Latin America and the United States, MPC, the operator of Muara port, is best positioned to handle the fertilizer cargoes, BFI said in a press release.
MPC recently began preliminary expansion works for Muara port that will double the size and capacity of Brunei’s main container terminal by 2023.
Under the agreement, MPC will provide BFI with the logistics of transporting urea from Sungai Liang Industrial Park to Muara Port, which can accommodate vessels of up to 40,000 deadweight tonnage to enable BFI to reach remote customers.
MPC will also take over operations of BFI’s terminal in Sungai Liang Industrial Park, which can accommodate smaller vessels up to 9,000 deadweight tonnage.
“This partnership is one of BFI’s projects to support the strong positive momentum for the Brunei government’s economic diversification efforts.
“Together BFI and MPC’s partnership will increase the local in-country value and create more than 150 employment opportunities directly and indirectly,” said Mohammed Salim, the CEO of BFI who signed the agreement with MPC CEO Zeng Caili.
The BFI project is one of the largest downstream energy and chemical projects in Brunei that utilises the country’s natural gas resources.
Once completed the plant will be one of the largest single-train urea facilities in the world, with an expected production capacity of 1.36 million tons of granular urea per year.
Urea is one of the most used fertilizers in the world.