OCI N.V. announced today that Sorfert, its joint venture with the Algerian oil and gas conglomerate Sonatrach was officially inaugurated on 10 November 2014.
According to the Dutch firm’s release on Wednesday, the inauguration ceremony was led by the Algerian Prime Minister Abdlmalek Sellal, and was attended by the Minister of Energy and Mining Youcef Yousfi, the Minister of the Interior and Local Government Tayeb Belaiz, and the President of the People’s Assembly of Oran Abdelhak Kazi Tani.
Sorfert is capable of producing 1.26 million metric tons of granular urea and 0.8 million tons of merchant anhydrous ammonia. Sorfert is owned by a 51/49 OCI and Sonatrach partnership and was constructed by OCI. The facility employs 762 engineers, of which 86% are Algerians. In addition, north of 5,000 Algerians were employed during Sorfert’s construction phase.
Nassef Sawiris, Chief Executive Officer of OCI N.V., commented: “Sorfert is Algeria’s first granular urea production facility and is the country’s largest exporter excluding oil and gas facilities. We are proud to be a significant contributor to Algeria’s strategic push to diversify its economy and we look forward to continuing our successful long-term partnership with Sonatrach and to working closely on future joint investments.”
