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QatarEnergy tenders urea facility expansion

14 August 2025

QatarEnergy has issued the main tender for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on a planned project to expand its low-carbon ammonia and urea potential by building a new production complex in Qatar’s Mesaieed Industrial City.

The planned blue ammonia and urea production facility will have a total output capacity of 6.4 million tonnes a year (t/y) and is understood to be the eighth expansion phase of its fertiliser production complex located in Mesaieed, MEED reported in April.

QatarEnergy issued the tender for EPC works on the blue ammonia and urea production facility expansion project in late July, according to sources.

The state energy giant has set a deadline of 15 January 2026 for the submission of technical bids for the project, sources said. It has not yet set a commercial bid submission deadline.

The Qatari state enterprise held a meeting with contractors in March to lay out plans for the project, MEED previously reported. At the time, the company was expected to issue the project’s main EPC tender in June.

The following contractors, among others, are understood to have been invited by QatarEnergy to bid for the blue ammonia and urea production facility expansion project:

  • Tecnimont (Italy) / Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India)
  • Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company (South Korea) / CTCI (Taiwan) / Toyo (Japan)
  • Samsung E&A (South Korea) / Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (Germany) / Consolidated Contractors Company (Greece/Lebanon)
  • Saipem (Italy)

The role of licensed technologies is important to the operations of the facility, so QatarEnergy has stipulated that contractors bring on board technology providers as part of the bidding process.

QatarEnergy expects to take a final investment decision on the project in the second quarter of 2026 and award the EPC contract in the third quarter of next year, sources told MEED.

The basic scope of EPC works on the blue ammonia and urea production facility expansion project is understood to include the following:

  • Urea and ammonia plants to produce 6.4 million t/y of urea
  • Urea formaldehyde plants
  • Nitrogen production units
  • Power unit for supply of 400MW
  • Units for the supply of 415 million cubic feet a day of sweet gas
  • Extension and additional bulk halls storage for urea
  • Export conveyors to Jetty 2
  • Three new urea berths on Jetty 2
  • New ammonia tank with storage capacity of 30,000 metric tonnes
  • Relocation of ammonia loading facilities
  • Desalination plant
  • Seawater supply and return
  • Logistics and office buildings

Last September, QatarEnergy announced its aim to build four new urea production lines at Mesaieed Industrial City, which will increase Qatar’s urea output capacity by 106%.

The production lines will raise Qatar’s production of urea – a key ingredient in fertilisers – from 6 million t/y to more than 12.4 million t/y.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs and president and CEO of QatarEnergy, said the first production line will enter operations before 2030.

ALSO READ: Contractors submit revised prices for QatarEnergy NGL train project

“When we looked at the market for urea in the future, with the growth of humanity today, with 1.5-2 billion people that will be joining us in the next 20-30 years, the urea requirement for food production will be exponentially increasing,” Al-Kaabi said at the time.

“Developing this project in Mesaieed Industrial City will ensure the optimum utilisation of the excellent existing infrastructure for the petrochemicals and fertiliser industries, including the city’s export port, which is one of the largest fertiliser and petrochemicals export facilities in the [Middle East and North Africa] region.

“It will also establish Mesaieed as the urea production capital of the world,” he added.

The planned expansion of its blue ammonia and urea production capability comes as QatarEnergy is making progress with its estimated $1.2bn Ammonia-7 project.

The under-construction facility in Mesaieed will have a capacity of 1.2 million t/y of blue ammonia, making it the world’s largest blue ammonia facility.

The complex will also have an additional unit for carbon dioxide injection and storage, with a capacity of 1.5 million t/y. QatarEnergy will provide the new plant with more than 35MW of electricity from the solar power plant that is also being built in Mesaieed Industrial City.

QatarEnergy began work on the blue ammonia production project in September 2022, when its subsidiaries Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco) and QatarEnergy Renewable Solutions signed an agreement to develop the complex.

In addition to signing the agreement for the development of the facility, the operators also formally awarded the project’s EPC contract to a consortium of Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Uhde and Greece/Lebanon-headquartered Consolidated Contractors Company.

The value of the EPC contract is $1bn, .

The facility is due to start operations in the first quarter of 2026 and will be operated by Qafco as part of its integrated facilities.

ALSO READ: QatarEnergy selects contractors for Bul Hanine oil field project

READ THE AUGUST 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

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Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

> MAGHREB MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb pushes for stability
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Indrajit Sen

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